God Loves Who You Are, Not What You Do

I experienced something last night and it got me to thinking this morning. I was out with friends, and ran into someone who I had not seen in several months. We all made the required pleasantries and then this person made a statement about working with an atheist, but that in the end he managed to get him saved. It was at that moment that I thought, "Dude, God loves who you are, not what you do."

Now don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying that we shouldn't spread the Gospel and bring people to Jesus. Because after all that is the whole point of why Jesus died on the cross, so don't stop reading here and get mad at me, go ahead and finish reading so you'll see the point that I'm actually making.

Often in life we identify more with what we do than with who we are; like Paul is an accountant, Sandy is a teacher, or Joe is shop worker. The really sad part is that "what" we do only takes about forty - sixty hours out of our week, the other 1o8 to 128 hours of that time we sleep, spend time with family and friends and enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Look at Romans 12:2 in the J.B. Phillips translation:

"Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God re-mold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands

and moves towards the goal of true maturity."

What is the goal of true maturity? To become better at your job? I don't really think that's it, I mean there may be a part of that which comes into play, but ultimately I think God is more about who we are not what we do. The problem that I have come to find (And yes, even in myself personally.) is that I got so identified with what I was doing for a living that I actually lost the sense of who I was as a person. I am David Felts, not Dave the shoe guy.

We tend to hold on to the "what" we are more than the "who" we are because it is easier to define ourselves when we can see some kind of results. I own a shoe store, so when business is good, then if I am identified with the shoe store, I am doing good. But if the store starts to do bad, then I am bad. It's a catch-22 that can lead you down a path you really don't want to be on.

Here's the thing, when everything is said and done, and I stand before Jesus and the Father God the relationships that I've developed will be the only thing that I can bring with me. Now I can make and develop relationships within my business and I actually try to do that, and that is a good thing. I just don't need my job to be my identification.

This begs the question then, if we should not identify ourselves personally with what we do, what then should we identify with? The answer comes in the form of a little booklet that I read so many years ago by Kenneth E. Hagin called "In Him". Inside this little booklet you will find all of the Scriptures that tell you who you are in Christ, and what you have and can do in Christ. It gives you the tools to renew your mind to the truth of God's Word about who you really are. And that is definitely worth looking into I believe.

So click on the link, pay the $1.50 and get this little booklet and began an in depth study of the Word to find out who you are, what you can do and what is yours in Christ, you'll be glad you did. Get 'em up folks, let's go out and whip something for the Kingdom today!