Who Do You Think You Are?
Sep 24, 2019 | by Anthony Wade
Who do you think you are? That is a question you have probably heard at one time or another in your life. Maybe you set out to do something that you had never attempted before and your mom or dad hit you with it. Perhaps you ignored your baseball coach’s sign for you to bunt, and instead swung for the fences, striking out in the process. If so, you may have heard him ask “Who do you think you are... Babe Ruth”? Most of the time, that question has a negative connotation to it. Often, it implies that you have no business holding to that type of self-worth or setting such lofty expectations for your life. None of that matters, though, because today that question is going to take on a whole new meaning.
From early on in life, we all want to be everything that we can be. We all have dreams that we want to see fulfilled in our lives. We all expect to be meaningful to those around us and pray that when all is said and done, our life matters for something. In fact, that process is so important to us, that we have parents and grandparents that teach us everything that we need to know. They not only teach us how to walk and talk, but also how to love each other, respect those around us, and be giving of ourselves, among other things. We go to school to be further educated and get jobs where we can learn important skills and responsibility. Even though all of those things are wonderful and even necessary, there is something that will be lacking if you don’t make a choice to go a little deeper.
My friend, those are all steps in a journey that you can take to learn ideas, cultivate talents, and even develop valuable character traits in your life. Unfortunately, most people stop there. They do all they can in this life to modify their behavior while never changing the very source of who they are.
A long time ago, I heard a wise man say that you can clean up a pig and even put it in a tuxedo, but in the end, it will still be a pig. Don’t get me wrong, behavior modification can be useful to a degree, but looking to it as a means of lasting change is no different than trying to control the weeds in your flower bed with scissors. If you don’t deal with the root, that weed will be around for a long time.
Jesus said He came so that we could live an abundant life (John 10:10), but that life of abundance doesn’t just materialize after you decide to follow some set of rules or put the power of positive thinking to good use. When you receive Jesus as your righteousness, you become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). You don’t just take on a new personality, but your spirit, that was once dead, actually comes alive with the very life of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:5-6)!
Please take a moment to understand this amazing truth --- Jesus didn’t come to change your behavior, but to give you new life that bears new fruit!
In the vine and branches parable, He shows us that we are supposed to bear the same fruit that He bore in this Earth and in Galatians 5:22-23, we see what that fruit is. This concept may seem hard to grasp at first, but just know that the sap that is in the vine is the SAME SAP that is in the branches. In fact, there is not a branch on this planet that has different sap running through it than the vine to which it is attached. I’m glad He always made things so easy to understand.
At the end of life’s journey, you will want to be able to say that you lived a meaningful life. The only way to truly live life to your fullest potential, however, is to make a decision to become that new creation. Once you do that, the old, meaningless things in your life will pass away and you’ll allow that new sap to flow freely! If you are in Christ Jesus today, then God’s Word says you are a new creation, more than a conqueror, an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ. That's who God, Himself, thinks that you are.
In my opinion, that’s who you should think you are, too.
Today’s Word Study: John 15:1-16