Much of our identity is based upon our relationships.
I’m a grandson. I’m a son. I’m a husband. I’m a grandfather. I’m a team member. I’m a small group member. I’m a pastor. I’m an employer. I’m all of those things. Those relationships help to define who I am.
We know who we are in relationship to other people. People who have gone through a divorce or the death of a spouse know this. When that relationship ends, many people have trouble coming to grips with who they are. Or if they’ve been laid off from a job that’s been tied to their identity, it can be really tough to get clarity with their identity.
That’s why God wants us to gain our identity from a relationship that’ll never end: our relationship with his family.
The Bible says, “You are members of God’s very own family . . . and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian” (Ephesians 2:19 TLB).
It doesn’t matter what family you’ve had in the past. Your identity doesn’t come from it. Your identity comes from your relationship with God’s family.
In fact, your physical family was just a channel to get you into God’s family. God used your parents—whether they were good parents or bad parents—to bring you into the world. But his real goal wasn’t to keep you in that family; it was to put you in his family.
Your spiritual family is actually more important than your physical family. Physical families don’t last forever. People grow up. They move away. They get divorced. They die.
Your spiritual family will last forever.
When that’s what your identity is built upon, it’ll last.
Talk It Over
Can you think of a time in your life when the loss of a relationship impacted your sense of identity? What was that like?
In what ways are you investing your life in things that really matter, things that will last forever?
How have you better understood your identity through your relationship with God’s family?
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