There are many things that can define us. Our job, our titles, our education, our money, our skillset, what we can do, and so on. A lot of people know me and see me as a confident and secure person. Some trace this back to my family background, what I do for a living, where I finished school from, and so on. Yet, a lot of people don’t know my secret.
I’d like to share this secret with you. How can you also live life secured and confident with who you are, without having an inflated sense of self-worth nor shrinking down?
The key is to listen to God and believe what He says about you, in accordance with His Word through divine revelation.
Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t always this confident nor secure. I had times when I let my inferiority complex get the best of me. I had moments when I compared my growth to other people. Thoughts like, “Good for her, she knows how to speak well. How about me?” or “She’s so pretty, when will I lose the unnecessary weight?” also plagued me.
But, I had to rise to the occasion all in reverence and respect to God and for my own good.
Come to think of it, what does God really say about us, as God’s people?
“A fish is not a fish because it swims. Rather it swims because it is a fish. Nature determines action.” – Ethel Heine
1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.
What I really want to impart here is confidence– Godly confidence. Who are we really in Christ?
1. We are chosen
God chose us because of His grace- because He loves us. Not by our own works, nor our own doing, nor because we loved Him first. But, it’s because He loves us first.
Ephesians 2:8-9
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
1 John 4:19
“We love because he first loved us.”
2. We are royal
Because we are royalty, we should hold our heads high and walk in confidence. This is not to encourage superiority complex, but to recognize that God, in Christ Jesus, has really set us apart for His own possession.
Hence, we should look at royalty in the same way Jesus Christ is royal. He came to serve, and not to be served. He became the least, which permitted Him to be regarded as the greatest. In the same way, in Christ Jesus, we are sons and/or daughters of God, through faith.
You must believe that God has called you and has chosen you for greatness– not in the way the world labels royalty. But, how the Word of God does– how Jesus has demonstrated.
Galatians 3:26
“For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”
3. We are holy
Holiness is, first and foremost, a heart issue. Who are you devoted to?
1 Peter 1:15-16
“… but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy for I am holy”
2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
Being holy and evolving towards holiness is a step by step process and God knows that. What matters to Him is our step by step obedience to His voice, as He reveals His will and His commands at the right time.
4. We are His
We have to stop living this life with the mindset that we do not belong to someone. We are accountable to Christ, now that we have given our lives to Him– and that seeps into how we must view ourselves and to Whom we must base our identity unto.
You have to act like you belong to God. And you must remember Who you are serving.
Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Psalm 139:13 (ESV)
“For you (God) formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.”
How do we live life secured? Incidentally, it’s still a matter of surrender and obedience– for our minds to be conformed to the ways of Christ. He did not call you to shrink. Nor has He called you to elevate yourself. He has called you to walk securely in Him– finding balance in the grace of the identity He has bestowed upon you.
Believe in yourself. But, most importantly, most fundamentally, base your confidence and identity in the One Who created you– the One Who loves you most.
Grace, all grace.