You Are Made

Your life, your existence, belongs to God.

Every circumstance of your life has been trying to define you, but God spoke you into being before any situation you’ve encountered had a chance to speak. Throughout life we all continually seek to discover and understand ourselves. Who you think you are matters so much that most of your life is lived out in response to your perceived identity. Your story matters, and the enemy is trying to steal your story. But God has already written it. Here’s where you started:

You were made. You did not evolve.

You were formed. You did not just happen.

Somebody wanted you to exist. Your life is on purpose.

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139:15-16 ESV

You are so intricately made, every hair on your head is numbered. I mean, you’re just worried about getting them parted right, but He put every one of them there and made them go where they go, waves or curls or straight, thick or thin or even non-existent!

And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Matthew 10:30 ESV

And not just physically, but mentally and spiritually, who you are in creation is most intimately connected to God Himself. Not your colleagues, not your friends, not your family, and not your tragedy. Not even your sin. Regardless of what all those things have said about you, you were first and most completely defined by Him because He created you. No one else has power to truly define you. Who you are belongs to God and nothing can take that away from you.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 139:13 ESV

You Are Known

Now, God did not just make you, plop you down on the earth, and then forget about you. He made you to know you. He made you to know others and for them to know you. And He wants you to know Him. It’s the clear plan of creation in Genesis (before chapter 3).

We all want to be known and loved.

Sometimes it’s a scary thought to realize just how much God knows us, but it really ought to be comforting. Your maker knows who you are and still loves you. More than your awareness will even allow, every thought that crosses your mind is naked and open to God.

Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
Psalm 139:4 ESV

What scares us is that we know our sin and we don’t want God to know it. In Genesis, God was able to walk freely in the garden with Adam and Eve, to talk with them. They were unhindered in their relationship. Until sin entered.

The greatest tragedy of your life (and my life) is sin, not your tragedy.

Because we follow it. We believe it. We allow sin to tell us things about God and about ourselves that aren’t true.

The only hope you and I have is Jesus, because He’s the only one who can (and will) make it right. He’s the only one who really understands your tragedy and your trauma. He’s the only one who really knows the depths of pain you’ve experienced and the brokenness you didn’t think you could survive. He’s the only one who can bring truth to the lies that you’ve been told about your life and circumstances and set you free once and for all.

In spite of the darkness you carry, the doubt you feel, the sin you contend with, you are pursued by the goodness of a God who made you for Himself.

Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
Psalm 23:6a ESV

So, if He who sets you free by His own truth created your inmost being, knows you in your sinfulness, and still pursues you with His goodness, why do you reject him and run from Him?

Why do we all hide?

Just like Adam and Eve, we hide because we believe fear and shame. We believe we are so fatally flawed that we are unlovable, untouchable, and unknowable.

You Are Loved

But here is freedom – even when we believe the fear and the shame, God knows it. He knows it well, better than we do, and He still pursues us like He pursued Adam. He comes to find us, speak to us, clothe us and cover us and provide for us.

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
Genesis 3:20 ESV

None of what we face will be able to separate us, as hard as it will try, from the love of God. He will pursue us with His goodness through the darkest night and the deepest offense because we are His creation.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39 ESV

Good or bad, the people and circumstances in our lives are constantly telling us who we are and who we should be.

Understanding and embracing how specifically God has created us (and how much He loves us) is a vital component of lasting peace and mental health.

Our ultimate identity is in our creation. As Christians, we must gain the perspective that who we are in creation ultimately began outside of our experience in a sinful and broken world. We are God’s workmanship, not the devil’s. We are in Him first and always. Our time in this world is temporary. We will be with Him again as Adam and Eve were, unhindered in our perception of His goodness and love for us.

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