Getting Back Our True Identity

John 17:20-21
I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in Me through this message. I pray that they will all be one, just as You and I are one----as You are in Me, Father, and I am in You. And may they be in Us so that the world will believe You sent me.

Matthew 4:3
During that time the devil came and said to Him, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread."

Sin robs us of our identity in Christ.
Addiction gives us a raging case of spiritual amnesia.
Put the two together, and we haven't a clue as to who we are and why we were created.
Life becomes complicated....
Our choices become skewed and misdirected.
Instead of following God's voice.....
We listen to our own, making our decisions based on what our old nature wants.

In other words, we reject the real-deal God for one created in OUR image.
We bend our knee and worship at the altar of self....
Such always demands that a price be paid.
So we pay...
We sacrifice friends and family...
We turn over our future...
We give our money, and the money of others to chase a feeling.
A feeling that is based on spiritual lies spoken to us by the devil.
Yes, Virginia, there is a devil.
And he seeks to steal from you...
To kill you...
And destroy anything that in any way might point you to God.

Sin/ addiction is a tool in his cache of weapons.
He will seek to overwhelm your thoughts and emotions using doubt and fear.
He will tell you that he is much more powerful than God, and that all this talk of recovery and a "new life" is nothing more than a bunch of hokum. 
Yet even in this moment when all these lies seek to overwhelm you....
Another voice is speaking to you....
One that speaks truth....
One that speaks hope....
A voice that is filled with mercy and grace....
A compassionate voice....

The voice of God speaking through His Holy Spirit.
I can't explain how all this truly works....
I just know it to be real...
I just know it to be truth...
And I know it to be the key that unlocks the cell where I was kept prisoner.
The choice was really simple...
Stay in that prison cell of doubt, fear, and unbelief...
Or walk out into a new way of living.

In the process of moving into a relationship with Jesus, we will begin to grow and understand exactly who we are IN Him.
We will experience our new identity in Christ.
Why not today.....
Why not choose now....

Because of Christ's Redemption...
I am a new creation of infinite worth..
I am deeply loved...
I am fully pleasing...
I am completely forgiven..
I am totally accepted...
I am absolutely complete in Christ...

That is the person that sin tried to destroy...
But Jesus has rescued me..
Filled me with the Holy Spirit....

Every day is an opportunity to learn and grow in Him.
Every day is another opportunity to move farther and farther

away from the "Old" me..

God on you....

mb