Verses to Remind You of Your Spiritual Identity
Several years ago, I joined a group for Christian moms of young children. At the beginning of the first meeting we were to introduce ourselves to the other moms at our round table by saying our name, how many children we have, and three facts about ourselves.
When it was my turn I said, “My name is Jenn and I have two boys and I’m a special needs mom and … um …” I froze. My life revolved around both of my young sons’ endless needs and appointments, and I couldn’t think of a single other thing to say about me.
The table leader gently added, “And you’re a beloved child of God,” before calling on the next mom to introduce herself.
I smiled gratefully at her, but the whole situation and her words left my mind whirling. How easy it is to become consumed by our hard circumstances. To get lost in our labels and end up losing track of our true identity. Or how easy it is to claim our insecurities as part of our identity and forget how God feels about us.
When I got home from that meeting I was determined to reclaim my spiritual identity, beginning with that beautiful name, Beloved. I looked up the definition; it means “to be deeply and dearly loved. To have great worth, value, and esteem to the beholder.”
God loves and values us so much He sent His son to die for us. When He looks at us, He doesn’t see those lies and labels we carry with us. He feels a love for us that is so vast we cannot even comprehend it this side of heaven. He looks at us, His beloved children, with such love and delight it makes Him break out into song over us (see Zephaniah 3:17).
Salvation transforms our identity. The same words that God proudly declared from heaven at Jesus’ baptism and again at Jesus’ transfiguration, God declares over us too: “This is my Beloved … with whom I am well-pleased and delighted” (see Matthew 3:17 NKJV, Matthew 17:5 AMP).
And that terrifies Satan. The devil will do whatever he can to make us doubt that identity, or make us focus on our work and our roles for our identity. Psalm 139:17-18a tells us, “How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.”
God thinks wonderful thoughts about us, and we need to read and remind ourselves of what our Heavenly Father thinks about us. That’s our true identity. Reading, praying, and declaring the Scriptures that tell us who we are in Christ can help guide us toward walking in confidence and victory as God’s children.
Here are some of my favorite Scriptures about our spiritual identity that we can be praying and declaring:
Beloved: “Beloved, we are God’s children now” (1 John 3:2a ESV).
Child of God: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 John 3:1a ESV).
Chosen: “he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Ephesians 1:4b ESV).
Equipped: "...so that the servant of God may be equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:17).
Friend: “I no longer call you servants … I have called you friends” (John 15:15).
Heir: “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17a).
Holy: “To all … who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:7).
Workmanship: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).
Wonderfully Made: “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Psalm 139:14).
And so many more!
Ephesians is one of my favorite books of the Bible because it reminds us of our spiritual identity and the spiritual blessings we receive when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior. I highly recommend you read and pray through the book of Ephesians (or at least the first chapter) so you can more fully embrace your spiritual identity and know that you are worthy of all the spiritual blessings God generously pours out on us.
May we embrace who we are in Christ with confidence!