Who Am I? I am God's temple.

Who am I?  I am God's temple.

I am defined as God's temple. I am holy.  Sacred. Separated from the common and made special because I am dedicated to God through Christ.

My mother dedicated me to the Lord before I was born!  When I was a child, I became conscious of God calling me and choosing me.  Mother dedicated me. I dedicated myself. Most of all, Christ dedicated me with the sacrifice of His blood.

That's the way they dedicated the Temple.  Lots of animals were sacrificed to dedicate the Temple to the Lord and set it apart for service and the worship of Jehovah God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus sacrificed Himself making my temple holy and set apart for worship. His blood sacrifice dedicated my temple for service and worship for Him.

And, the Lord filled that Temple with His glory. The priests couldn't perform their service because the glory of the Lord came down. The Lord inhabitated His Temple!

Like that Temple, I am God's Temple filled with the glory of God!  The glory of the Lord inhabits me. His Spirit inhabits me. He fills me with Himself   That's who I am. A place of God's abiding Spirit. Christ in me. The glory of Christ fills me.  That's a powerful reality.

I'm not filled with the stuff of this world that looks appealing when new but too soon becomes broken, outdated, and discarded as junk.

I am not filled with revenge or the spirit of retaliation. I am not filled with the idols of pleasure, the co-dependency of pleasing people, or fleshly desires. NO,  I am instead filled with the glory of Christ. The glory of His love.  The glory of His mystery. And, the glory of His grace and truth!  The glory of Christ fills my temple. Every inch and every corner from wall to wall and from floor to ceiling. That's who I am! That's who I was made to be. That's who I am dedicated to be.

That's very humbling to me.  It's still hard for me to accept that reality.

That Temple was filled with gold and silver instruments of worship. The seraphim with wings outstretched watched over the ark of the covenant and the covenant is the promises that He keeps with His chosen people.

I too am gold and silver instruments in my worship of Christ. My worship makes me valuable to the Lord for He inhabits my praise as He inhabits my temple.  I am not a common thing. I am not ordinary but extraordinary. I am special, holy, called to seve Him as the instrument and building for worship. I fulfill the chief purpose for which I was created.  To worship Christ and enjoy Him forever.  To have the pleasure of His company in a holy and eternal sacred love relationship!

And like the seraphim so watched over that Temple, so God's angels watch over me. I can't think of numerous times they looked after me. For example, one time I fell asleep at the wheel and they, although unseen, guided me into a safe place where I woke up.  My heart beat fast. I was stunned. When I realized what had happened, I offered praise to the One who dispatches His angels to care and look out for me. Angels watching over me day and night.  When I sleep. When I awake. Angels watching over my temple like in days of old.

The Temple's materials were very expensive. It cost a lot of money to purchase the building materials. It cost a lot to purchase my Temple for the Lord's use as well. I was bought with a price, the blood of Jesus.  A price that cannot be measured.

I am not my own. I do not own my "I."  Christ owns it.  The title to myself has been transferred to Christ. He owns me and made me His Temple to inhabit me and fill me with His glory.

Since my Temple was purchased from me by the blood of Jesus, I am no longer controlled by sinful addictions. I am free to be who Christ wants me to be. A place where He abides and forms His image of glory in me.

I am no longer under human control. I am no longer controlled by who if thought others wanted me to be and do.  For me, that is FREEDOM! And it took a long time for me to finally realize this as my identity - God's magnificent Temple. That's who I am. I am God's Temple made into a place where He abides and receives my worship of Him.

The incense rising from my Temple altar of prayer is a pleasing aroma to Him. I am to please Him and not others. I am to please Him and not myself. I live to worship Him. I live to worship You!

You are the Lamp in my Temple filling me with Light. I give my life to you. You are the only One I'm living for. I give my all to you.

O Lord, fill my Temple with your glory. Cleanse me. Glorify yourself through my Temple. I live to testify of your glory, power, and your life in me.

Who am I?  I am a temple of the Holy Spirit of Christ!

"Here In My Life," Darlene Zschech

 

Who Am I? I am at rest.

Who am I?  I am at rest. It was nothing I archived by my power. Rest came by the power of Christ through His grace and mercy.

Since the Lord has given me self-understanding and self-awareness of who He says I am instead of me merging my identity (my ego) into others and becoming them and therefore losing my identity, I have a great since of peace and validation. It's a wonderful feeling. The writer of Hebrews calls this entering into God's rest.

For me, the rest is an end to my struggles and the resulting stress of trying to be someone God in His providence never intended me to be. It was like He forced my "I" to be subjugated to Him. He put me in my place so that He could put me in His place, the place of His rest. Christ brought me into His place of rest when I quit "kicking against the pricks" and going against the grain.

It's been an humbling experience to go from me trying to get to the top to the reality and acceptance of being at the bottom.  It took a lot of hard knocks for my "I" to die.  I didn't go down easily. But when my "I" was finally given the knock-out blow, something amazing and wonderful happened!  I entered God's rest. I am at rest.

Stress vanished. I no longer had to take my calm down, anti-anxiety pill. I no longer had to take my "pick-up" pill either to counter my depression. It was and is quite amazing, and my Christian doctor was happy for me. My wife said, "It's good to have you back!"  Well, it's good to be back, and I have Christ alone to thank who gave me no rest until I entered His rest.

It's one thing to read and hear Jesus' words, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly”  (Matthew 11:28-29 MSG).  

It's one thing to read and hear those words. It's another thing to believe His words, accept them, and be in "real rest" and to live freely and lightly.

The good Lord refused to let me rest until I followed Him into His rest and became more like Him by way of His image being formed in me. 

I was stubborn going against the grain. It took a lot of painful unrest to recover my "I" and learn the rhythms of grace. 

For me, His rest means that I am no longer defined by my success or failure, by praise or criticism, and whether or not I am accepted or rejected.  I can just be little me knowing that I am accepted by Christ for who I am just as I am and not who I thought I should be. And that is rest. The rest Christ gives me.

His rest takes worry out of me. His rest takes stress away like a cool drink of water takes away thirst. His rest is a place of quiet repose and sanctuary full of joy and peace instead of discouragement and conflict which fostered my anger.

Who am I?  I am at rest. It's a wonderful place to be. I never want to leave it, and by God's grace and mercy through Christ, I never will!  Amen and amen.

Who Am I? I Am Chosen

Who am I?  I am chosen.

Why is it important to know who I am?  To know my identity? To know I am chosen by Christ and belong to Him?

I have a crying need to be significant. To know that I matter. To know I am a person of worth and have a purpose to get up every morning.  I have dreams and aspirations. I don't want to watch life pass me by from the sidelines.

Because Christ chose me for His team, I get in the game and play the game of life for His glory. I win with Him and for Him. I am a winner because He is a winner. I am more than a conqueror through Him who gave His all for me and gives me the power to win for Him!

I want to feel that I am important and that I count for something.  Christ did that for me by choosing me to be on a his team.

But, I wanted to play on another team.  I wanted to play with the big boys. To become successful like them. To be significant. I wanted to be famous and well-known like them. To plow under the competition like they did.

I heard their success stories. "Be like me," they said.  "You can achieve your dreams. You can play on the winning team with us instead of the humble bumble team you are on." They would rattle off all the things I needed to do to be successful and powerful like them. If I followed their advice, I could win trophies and proudly display them like they did.

I practically drove myself crazy implementing all of their formulas for success. But, it was to no avail. I didn't make their cut list. Didn't make their team. I failed and branded myself a failure because I didn't measure up.  No one took notice!  No one I considered important chose me for their team in spite of my best efforts to impress them with my performance. It was rejection after rejection from them.  Or, that's the way it appeared to me.

As a result, I doubted myself and my abilities. So, I tried harder. I worked more.  It was no use.  Depression became my constant companion.  I lived in darkness.

My obsession to be significant was really a cry for attention, security and, ultimately, the need for spiritual healing. I needed my heavenly Father to show me that I matter to Him. That I am significant to Him. He had to reveal to me that the accolades, affirmation, and honors from people I considered significant and successful really didn't matter at all. He chose me for His team. He wouldn't allow me to play for any other. No wonder I was miserable. He is jealous over His chosen team. He doesn't trade away one of His team members.  He makes a person who wants to play with the big boy team miserable.  Trust me. I know. 

I think my relentless drive to be the star quarterback for the big boy team was rooted in my childhood. I didn't receive much affirmation growing up.  My parents were good people and did the best they could. I'm guessing they had passed down to them what they passed on to me. The Bible calls this the "generational curse."  

I remember my dad telling me, "You're not going to amount to a hill of beans."  

My mom called me "Impudent, rebellious, and sassy!"  

My high school principal told me, "You're never going to make it in college!  You need another year of high school."

Looking back, it seems I went through a large portion of my life trying to prove everyone wrong and that their opinions of me were wrong.  To prove them wrong, I was driven to be somebody important.  To be well known. Even famous! 

 

That's not a good way to live. I wouldn't recommend it for anybody. 

I was driven to be validated. I wanted everything that I did to be perfect so as to receive the "Good Job" award. I wanted not only to be on their team, but I coveted their Most Valuable Player award. I was obsessed with my work.  My desire was to please them. To perform up to their expectations.

I went off the cliff if I received an evaluation other than perfect.  I was jealous of peers who received the MVP award.  I had a lot of resentment and felt I was treated unfairly and unappreciated. 

The broken and missing parts in me needed to be restored. I longed for the affirmation and validation I missed growing up.

With a lot of help, counsel, and meditating on who I am, I began to realize that when parents don’t tell their children that they love them, they will look for other relationships and experiences to speak to  their aching hearts. The significance-shaped vacuum seeks the comfort of the world’s applause. That was me. 

The dark side of all this need for significance was my self-induced anxiety and desperation? I suffered when things didn't turn out the way I expected. I was fixated furiously on “my plans and goals and drove myself and the ones closest to me crazy. I wanted to see results right away. I wanted instant gratification and wanted everyone to love me for my superior performance. I wanted to be a winner. After all, no one loves a loser!

Who am I? I am Christ's handiwork.

Who am I?  I am Christ's handiwork!  That's really something to ponder.  Knowing who I am in Christ with the identity He gives me and how He defines who I am solidifies my identity.

I am not defined by my failures or successes.  I am not defined by what others say I am or by their evaluations of my performance.  I am not even defined by who I think I am because sometimes, I don't think very highly of myself. I am defined by Christ. He gives me my identity.  I can rest in knowing that.

It's a powerful thing to know my identity.  It gives me power, confidence, belonging, and most importantly, BEING!

I am Christ's handiwork. Incredible. I've always thought of His handiwork as being in the night sky. The stars, the Milky Way, and the moon.  Glorious!  Marvelous to behold.

I am right now looking at his handiwork from my man-cave.  The Georgia pines covered in ice. The cardinals at my bird feeder on the background of ice-covered ground.  Beautiful and brilliant.

But me?  Christ's handiwork?  Comparable to the beauty of the night sky?  The beauty of gray covering the earth with ice falling from its wonder?

Yes!  I am God's handiwork through the grace of Christ.  And, I am created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for me to do.

Isn't that what His creation does?  He created them to show forth His glory, majesty, and creative power. The sun does what it was created to do. It is to do the good work of giving light and heat to this world by giving its energy.  And the grey cloud?  It does what it's created to do - to give water to the earth making life possible on this planet.  

Only by the grace of God through Christ's sacrifice on the cross, and by His life in me can I do what I am created to do.  

He gives me the ability to worship Him in truth and love.  That's what I was created to do.  

I am His handiwork to do the good works of speaking encouragement to the discouraged. To give a helping hand to the fallen.  To give the warmth of  kindness to the unkind.  To show patience to the angry.  To demonstrate love to the unloved. To point to the Way for those who have lost their way.  To share the Word of Hope to the hopeless and confused. 

I couldn't do this without God's grace and Christ living in me -  forming His image in me.  I'm not kind by nature. I am mean and snappy and still have that mean streak show up at the worst times.  By nature, I'm impatient and subject to a fit of rage here and there. It takes a while for His image to fully form in me. But, I sense it more and more.  That's His grace making me His handiwork. By nature, I'm fallen and full of my old self.  But praise the Lord, I'm a new creation.  And, I'm evolving into my new nature. It's been a long process.  This evolutionary process will continue all my life.just as the earth, God's handiwork, is still evolving.

Who am I?  I am God's handiwork created for good works.  The Master Carpenter is forming me, making me, and shaping me into the person only He can make. Praise the Lord!  All glory to Him!  I know who I am!

Who am I? I am salt.

Who am I?  I am salt.

My identity does not come from within me. It comes from outside me.  I am not defined by what I do.  By my job, my education, my family background.  I am not defined by my successes or failures.  Those are not who I really am.  Those are within me.

My identity is defined by Christ who is beyond me yet is in me through his Holy Spirit.  He tells me who I really am and makes me who I really am.  The answers to who I am and why I exist come from Him. After all, He is the Creator (Colossians 1:16), and he is the One who created me.  Therefore, He knows who I am and why I was created!  He holds the solution to the mysteries of life, being, and belonging,

Jesus says I am salt. The  salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13).  And He put the saltiness in me!

Salt?  That's rather strange and something I've overlooked as how I am salt.  I've always considered salt of the earth as seasoning for the world, but it's more, much more, than that. Salt is seasoning  that adds taste for people whose lives are bland. They exist but do not live.

Salt adds the taste of holiness, purpose, comfort, power, and many other delectable qualities to those who exist but do not live.  Salt brightens their day with the smile of encouragement, the presence of a fellow traveler and pilgrim, and preserves family and friend relationships.

I bring seasoning to unsavory situations. Love to those rejected by others.  Comfort to those who grieve.  Counsel to those who are downcast. Hope to the hopeless. I am all of these tasteful qualities that Christ freely gives to salt. Amazing!

What is bread without salt?  Yuk!  But, a half teaspoon of salt added to the dough makes the bread delightful. Moreover, it only takes a sprinkle or two to light up broccoli, a salad, and innumerable foods.  A little salt flavors everything it touches.

And, what good is salt sitting on the shelf?  It has to be used!  In the same way, my life is to be used. When I sprinkle my salt around, then I am useful and beneficial. My identity is in usefulness.  I fulfill the purpose for which the saltiness of salt is given to me. Salt is made to be used.

I am salt whose saltiness is created by Christ. I am just a little dash of salt, but I flavor everyone who I touch. That's pretty neat now that I meditate on it.

The identity Jesus gives me takes the bland and hum-drum out of life including mine.

Jesus puts the saltiness of salt in me making me a blessing to others and tasteful for service in His name.   This makes my life valuable because of the identity Christ gives me in pronouncing that I am salt!

Without salt, the body dies.  Plants, animals, and humans have to have salt to live. Without salt, relationships die, the soul dies, and even the world dies.

Christ puts the salt in me so that I live and not exist.  He gives me the taste for life which I am to sprinkle around and share with everyone.

Salt is good, necessary stuff. Who am I?  I am salt.  Wow!  Praise the Lord! Glory to God!

Who am I? I am light.

Who am I? I am light. The light does not come from me. It is given, a free gift by the Light - the Father of lights through the Light of the world.

The darkness that was in me has been overcome by the Light. I was confused, depressed, and filled with dark despair not knowing who I am.

In the darkness, I blindly searched for my self and was lost. I tried to find my selfhood in others. I wanted their accolades, praise, and well-done. I searched for something I could never have. It was a tortuous search. The darkness closed in around me.

The darkness told me I was a failure. All I could sense was the rejection from others that left me bruised and battered from stumbling around in the dark tripping over things I could not see.  Confused. And groping for something to hold on to. I wasn't in a good place.

But the Light was in me all the time. It was like having a switch to a light in the blackest night that went unused.

Finally and thank God, faith switched the Light on and flooded my soul making me light from the Light of life.

I do not produce that light. Rather, I am like the moon receiving light from the Father of lights through the Son.

The Light showed me who I am. Brilliant. Shining. I am light shining. No more darkness in my soul, emotions, or mind.  Nor more stumbling and falling. The Light shows me the way how to live and shows me who I am.  It is a blessed state.

The Light produces the fruit of righteousness and truth and enables me to see what pleases The Lord.

That is my purpose. It is not in pleasing others and seeking their approval like I tried to do in the darkness.

Not only has the Light been switched on to reveal my misguided search for self hood, but the Light makes me light. The light of the world flooding the darkness to show others the Way, the Truth, and the Life even as the Light showed me who I am and shows me the path to follow.

The Light keeps me in the place of peace. No matter where I go or what circumstances surround me. I know who I am. I am light because I now live in the Light. Nothing can extinguish it. It is everlasting because the Light is forever shining in me and on me.

 Who am I? I am light. Oh praise the Light. Glory be to the Light for God is Light. In Him is no darkness!