Why Identity Matters

The KJV of Proverbs 23:7 says “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he”. The verse is pointing out our inward beliefs of the heart are more real than the outward impression we give. Our beliefs and therefore our actions come from our heart/soul.

When we are born, we immediately begin learning who we are. We are given a name. We become part of a family, culture, and community. We learn our beliefs about the world and ourselves from our parents/guardians. As we age and meet others, we begin to develop a sense of self from the reflection we see through other people’s eyes.

Discuss: How does the world measure us? How do we measure ourselves?

It starts with the heart

• Proverbs 4:23: Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

• Luke 6:45: The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

• Matthew 23:25-26: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

You can’t trust others’ opinions about your identity

• Jeremiah 17:5: Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.

• Proverbs 25:19: Trusting in a treacherous man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth or a foot that slips.

• John 2:24-25: But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

Discuss: In what ways have others communicated value or identity to us?

Only your Creator has the right to tell you your worth

• Isaiah 44:24: Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself.

• Isaiah 55:8-9: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

• 1 Corinthians 1:25: For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

• 2 Corinthians 10:18: For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

• Hebrews 4:12-13: For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

What your Creator says about you

• Matthew 10:29-31: Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

• Ephesians 2:10: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

• Luke 12:6-7: Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

• Jeremiah 29:11-13: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

• Psalm 139:13-16: For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

• Romans 10:9-10: Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Discuss: What does God say about YOU? Does your heart agree? How do we change our heart?