WHO ARE YOU?

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“Who are you?” they asked.

“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. “I have much to say in judgment of you. But He who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from Him I tell the world.”

They did not understand that He was telling them about his Father. So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The One who sent Me is with Me; He has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases Him.”

Even as He spoke, many believed in Him.

John 8:25-30

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we enter a new year and the dawn of another decade, I have one simple question for you:

Do you suffer from an identity crisis?

Many people do today and I can definitely remember a time when I was there, trying to figure out who I was and what my purpose was in life. It’s not a great place to be and some may go their entire lifetime and still not be able to know their identity.

Well, as we see in today’s scripture passage from John, Chapter 8, Jesus also suffered from a bit of an identity crisis, not that He didn’t know who He was but rather others didn’t. In this case, it was the Pharisees, the Jewish religious authorities of the first century AD.

We see where they got right to the question, amazingly after Jesus had tried to tell them where He was from, that He had come to earth from heaven and thus was in the world but not of the world. In fact, Jesus told the Pharisees that He would soon be returning but they would not be able to follow Him because they refused to place their belief in Him as the promised Messiah.

Before this, Jesus proclaimed Himself as the Light of the world, having come to bring the people out of the darkness of sin and into the light of the salvation He offered. Yet, despite trying tell the Pharisees about Himself, the Jewish leaders still asked the question, “Who are you?"

Jesus provided an answer but before I get to that, a quick question for you:

How would you answer the same question Jesus received? Who are YOU?

My answer would have been all over the place in the period before I received Jesus into my life. The analysis of how I would respond would be internal and self centered. I would try and explain who I was and the focus would have been all on myself.

Unfortunately, all of that was falsehood. Those identities had very little worth beyond this temporary, worldly life I was living. But when I accepted Jesus as Savior and became His disciple, something amazing happened, something that made the identity question easy to answer.

You see, I was a Christian, period. That was all I needed to say and that was all I needed to be.

My identity was in Christ Jesus because as a Christian, I was to live as Christ did. In other words, my identity was no longer centered on myself but rather Jesus and it was my life mission to live in such a way to let others see Him through me.

I pray you share the same identity and if you don’t, I pray you will consider finding it today as I did.

Jesus certainly hoped His listeners might do so as He spoke to the Pharisees and others gathered with them. He answered the question about who He was by reminding the Pharisees that He has been answering the question “from the beginning”. They just weren’t willing to accept His words.

But Jesus made sure they knew that all He was saying would be shown as true when He was sent to the Romans by the Jewish religious establishment to be executed by crucifixion. It would be then that they would finally see that the very God they worshiped was indeed with His Son, never forsaking Him but rather blessing Him for always doing what was pleasing in His sight.

Jesus knew His identity and He wasn’t afraid to declare it. As a result, the scriptures tell us that “many believed in Him.” People were saved through Christ’s testimony of His identity.

I pray the same might happen for anyone who reads this devotion and has not accepted Christ themselves.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com