Identity

Identity is something that every person searches for at some time or another, some search for it their whole lives. The great thing about knowing Christ is that we know our identity is in Him, We are Christ’s beloved. We are daughters of the King! Now that is quite an identity! So what does that look like as we live out our lives in our high school, with our friends, and in our culture?  Amata this year is focusing on the book of Philippians and in this book is one of my favorite verses of all time which I think directly speaks to this issue.

Philippians 3:7-9 says “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ.^[c] For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.”

What an amazing call! Everything else is garbage- clothes, popularity, money… all garbage compared to knowing Jesus. What did you believe was valuable in your life before you knew Christ? For me this verse is so convicting because I need to make sure I still consider everything else garbage for the sake of knowing Christ. It helps me re-evaluate and make sure that day by day I am still finding my identity in Jesus and not other things that are not important. Its so hard because it is completely countercultural but that’s the thing about following Christ. No one said it would be easy but in Christ there is freedom. We belong, we are loved, and we are free, what a beautiful gift  it is to have our identity be that we are a beloved daughter of the king.

~Alisa