Identity in Christ

Isaiah 61:10, "I delight greatly in the Lord, my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." (NIV)

Many of us would never think about being harsh with anyone else but there are times that we are very harsh or critical concerning ourselves.  I truly believe that each of us need to seek to improve the person that we are but we also need to be careful and not allow our self criticism to deflate and defeat our identity in Christ.  Each and everyone of us possess weaknesses that are evident to others as well as evident to each of us.  But in many cases our family and friends do not allow those weaknesses to change their view of us but we allow those weaknesses to change our view of ourselves.  We must not allow our view of ourself to create an attitude that is always under-achieving or failing to commit fully to our personal development.  Each of us are full of God given ability and talent that He can use to assist others on their journey through life.  We must learn to see ourselves through the eyes of Christ and realize that our hope is in our identity in Christ.  We identify our limitations much quicker than we identify our strengths.  We identify what we don't like about ourself much quicker than we identify those characteristics that others admire about us. 

What is the solution to this dilemma that works in our mind?  I believe that it can be found in the principle that we read in our scripture passage.  The Lord has "clothed me with garments of salvation."  We need to remember that the Lord has made an investment in our life; He has provided the means of our salvation and He loves us regardless of our own self-identity.  Let us develop the discipline to look at ourselves as a child of God and to know that He sees great potential in each of us.  He sees more potential in us than we see in ourselves but our responsibility is to submit our lives to Him so that He might lead us into the development of that potential.  That development begins when we accept our identity as a child of God.