Two Minute Adventures in… Identity: Be in Christ!
Day 6: Guard me as the apple of the eye… (Psalm 17:8)
Apple of the eye, in Hebrew, literally means, “the little person in the eye.” When you get close up and look into someone’s pupils, you can see yourself.
The Bible says that you are the apple of God’s eye. When you get up close and look into God’s eyes, you see yourself! God’s eyes are always on you. You are always on God’s eyes.
To be the apple of God’s eye is to be God’s prized possession. God sees you. God thinks about you all the time. To be the apple of God’s eyes is to be under God’s care… to be cherished and loved by God.
You are the apple of God’s eye.
Day 7: But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine… …you are precious in my sight and honored and I love you… (Isaiah 43:1; 4)
Think about that for a moment: In the midst of this vast, ever-expanding universe, surrounded by billions of people, God says that you—that you!—are precious and honored in God’s sight.
You matter. You matter to God. You are precious and honored in God’s sight. You are the one God loves.
Day 8: When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers — the moon and the stars you set in place —what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority— the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents. O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! (Psalm 8:3-9, NLT)
You have been created in the Image of God. No other creature holds that high, sacred status. To be the Image of God is to move toward the world the way God does—with grace, love, kindness, and generosity.
As God cares for you, God calls you to care for the world.
As God loves you, God calls you to love the world.
As God is generous toward you, God calls you to be generous toward the world.
Day 9: For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. (Psalm 139:13-14)
Take a moment today and look into a mirror. Take in all of you. And say to yourself: I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Say it again. And one more time.
It may feel awkward at first since most of us have a hard time looking in the mirror and seeing ourselves as God sees us.
You are fearfully and wonderfully made by your Creator, who is proud of God’s work… meaning God is proud of you.
Day 10: So if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Take a moment to look into a mirror once again. You may be fearfully and wonderfully made, but, as we saw yesterday, we may not always feel like it. We see the flaws. We know the moments when we’ve not always been what we want to be.
But in Jesus, you have a new identity. You are a new creation. You are God’s son. You are God’s daughter.
The cross is the guarantee of that new identity.
So today, try living who you are. Live as a new person. As one loved and forgiven by God through Christ.
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