WHO ARE YOU?

PASTOR RYAN LADEN – DEVOTIONALS

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WHO WE ARE… INFLUENCES HOW WE ACT. 

HOW WE ACT… ILLUSTRATES WHO WE ARE. 

Bear His Name

If I am a child of God, then I will desire to live and work as one who bears the name of my God and Father. As I seek to live in and through my true self and nature (child of God), I will turn this desire into action, and this action will led me to greater depths of understanding about who I really am. 

My actions do not change my nature. 

Just because I start acting like an astronaut, wearing their gear, speaking their lingo, and moving closer and closer to their base of operations, this does not make me someone whose nature and place in life can be defined as being an astronaut. At best, I can only become a great fan of other space cadets. 

My nature will be seen in my actions. 

If I am a musician at heart, someone who has inborn rhythm and who can identify the language of melody and harmony as easily as I can breathe, then this nature is going to be seen in my actions. Because of these natural traits I will find ways to make music and to put the songs in my heart out into the world in some way. If this were true for me (which it is not), then I would confirm my musical nature through observing my musical actions. 

Lavish

In the passage that follows, we hear this same truth laid out in such a way that we should be overcome with joy as we hear the truth of our true God-given nature. 

Listen to the lavish love of God being put on full display. 

1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

(1 John 3:1-3 NIV11)

How have we become Children of God?

•   We have been adopted into the family of God (Father, Son, and Spirit) thanks to the sacrificial gift of Jesus Christ. 
•   God the Son laid down his life as a ransom for you and I so that we would no longer live as enemies of God (sin at work in us).
•   Because of his work on the cross, Jesus Christ has taken our place and has purchased our lives and our souls from hell itself. 
•   In his resurrection we see the proof that Jesus Christ has called us into his new and eternal life, a life that is available to all who call on the name of Jesus Christ by faith. 

Because the Lord has LAVISHED his love on us, we are now welcomed into the family of God as an heir with Christ. All who receive this gift of love by faith are now included in this new and eternal family. 

Point

This is the point that was made by the Apostle Paul in the following passage:

26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

(Galatians 3:26-29 NIV11)

You?

So, if this is who you are, then this new nature is going to bring about real and lasting change in the way you think, feel, and act. If you are defined as someone that desires to become more and more like Jesus Christ with each passing day, then this truth will lead you to want more and more of Christ in all areas of your life.

Refuse?

So what does it say about us when we refuse to seek obedience to Christ and choose to continue living in sin? It tells me that I need to reconnect with the truth of who I am. 

When I am connected to my Christian reality (I am a child of God), then I find that my desire for sin and evil dissipates and evaporates, leaving me free to choose purity. When I forget (maybe intentionally) my true nature as a child of God, I find that I seek impurity and sin. 

Reflection

•   Are you living out your true nature as a child of God?
•   Or are your actions, attitudes, and desires more in line with someone who has forgotten their true nature?
•   Today is the day to reconnect with your true self and say goodbye to your old ways. 

In Christ, 

Ryan Laden

PASTOR RYAN LADEN

Works at MTN. CHURCH

Former Senior pastor at Warnbro Community Church

Studies at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

Studied at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

Studied at Baylor University

Studied at Texas Tech University

Went to Castle Hills First Baptist

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