Every Longing Heart
Monday, December 15, 2025
Today’s Reading: Galatians 3:26-29
I suspect that Identity is one of the enemy’s favorite areas of deception. Perhaps I think that because it is the one that led to my own season of rebellion. There are still times when I battle against his lies about who I am. (“Who are you to write an Advent Devotional?”) I don’t think it’s just me, though. We are desperate for identity, so we cling tightly to those things that we think make us who we are, like culture, tribe, political party, name, career, or public perception. We may let a particular attribute define us instead of just describe us. I think it’s a desire to be who we were made to be, if we can figure out what that is.
I clearly remember a specific chat with friends when I was about 14. We were all talking about boys (perhaps problem #1), as often happens with teen girls, when a couple of my friends started bemoaning the fact that they weren’t getting the attention of guys. I remember seriously thinking to myself: Oh, that’s easy — just become whatever it is they want. Shew. That was the enemy’s work through the media right there. Despite being raised in church, I did not know who I was, and I was willing to put the clay of my identity into the hands of anyone promising love. That led to such a regrettable and painful wilderness.
How many of us are still trying to define who we are? Here’s a test: If you feel like you would be lost, empty, or worthless without ___________, then you probably still find your identity in something other than Christ. Is it your role in a relationship that defines you? A profession? Are you known for something in particular?
This is not to say our roles in life aren’t holy and good. We should take each obligation and endeavor seriously. What we do should flow from who we are, though. So put another way, it’s not what we do in life that makes us who we are. We are all made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), loved and pursued by Him (Romans 5:8, 2 Peter 3:9). That is true for everyone, whether or not we acknowledge it. Ask anyone creative (an artist, a writer, etc), and they will confirm that they know their creations better than anyone. They brought them forth. God created us, and that gives us an identity that informs what we do.
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10 NIV)
Additionally, those of us who have chosen to follow Jesus are children of God (Romans 8:14-17, 1 John 3:1-2, Galatians 4:4-7, Ephesians 1:5). I am loved by my Creator. I am a daughter of the King and co-heir with Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. It is from this identity that I can then go on to walk in my callings, to be a wife, a mother, a nurse, a friend.
As one accepts their true identity as God’s workmanship and Jesus’ disciple, a sort of mystical union occurs. We are clothed in Christ, identifying with His death, His resurrection, and His kingdom work.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20 NIV)
“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4 NIV)
“But we have the mind of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 2:16 NIV)
There is such peace in no longer caring what other people think of me, except to the extent that I represent Christ. Now I have to be careful here to warn against what’s called pantheism. We are not all gods, and we are not all part of some “Christ consciousness.” There is only one God, YHWH. It is by His omnipotence and love that we exist and by His divine will that we can now identify with His Son through adoption as “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). What an awesome identity!