Trying to find your identity in the world?
Do you love the darts, football, rugby, or are you a cooking enthusiast, or a shopaholic. Would you ever consider that perhaps these things could be what you are building your identity on?
A lot of us love football, however if your identity is built on it this could lead to problems in your life. Let us say you have been a football fan all your life, Manchester United win the FA Cup or the Premier League and that brings you satisfaction and a temporary form of peace.
After the club has won these accolades, you venture back home only to be faced with all the same problems that life throws at you, anxiety returns, you have to go back to work to pay for this and that, and a whole range of thoughts that get you down.
Well in this article we have good news for you. You can build your identity in someone that will bring you lasting peace. This article is not here to tell you that you cannot watch football, by all means go, and enjoy the football match, however, build your life on the rock that is Jesus, so that you feel peace all of the time and not just when Manchester United win the Premier League (it might not be for a while anyway).
Build your identity on Jesus
Jesus said that those who thirst and drink who do not know Him will thirst again, but those who know Jesus and follow His ways will never thirst and living water will flow out of their lives welling up to eternal life.
We encourage you to read the following story where Jesus sat at a well and led a Samaritan woman to true salvation.
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman – John 4 v 1-26
“Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Why is this story important?
It is important for two reasons, other reasons as well but we will point out two reasons for you.
1) Jesus knew everything about the Samaritan lady, he knew her struggles and the things she was hurt by. The fact that this lady had already been married to 5 husbands indicates that life has been a struggle. But Jesus looked past all of that and did not condemn her, he put her on a path to receive living water, A NEW LIFE.
2) Jesus then explains that those who believe in him will receive living water. The point is if your thirst is for Manchester United to do well and win trophies, then you are going to thirst again and have that temporary peace and joy, or if you believe in Jesus, you can have that peace and joy living inside of you all the time.
Again, go and watch the football and enjoy it, a lot of Christians do. But know that you can build identity on Jesus that will bring you living waters flowing through your life. Being in Jesus’ provision means you will do things for him that will bring you lasting peace and joy helping others; you will be provided for and Jesus will give you everything you need to sustain you.
Not only will you have a lasting peace in your lifetime, you will also be saved and know that when you leave this world, you will be going to a place where peace is eternal, no wars, no crime, and no consequences to bad decisions and mistakes you have made, nobody out to hurt you, no guilt, no shame and a place where you have joy in heaven.
If you can learn these scriptures and develop a belief that these are true then you will be on a pathway to peace, and will not worry about building your identity on temporary joy, you will build your identity on Jesus, and have lasting joy.