Gabrielle Rockson

Jobs, titles, status, money… we often tie our value and identity to these things, and while they can help describe us and give more insight into who we are as a person, one thing they all have in common is that they can change.

When you’re no longer working at your company, no longer following a particular career path, or no longer running your business — who are you then? If you’re no longer making that higher salary, or you no longer have the big following on social media, does that change how you view yourself?

Sometimes I feel so disconnected when we as people get celebrated for our job occupations, because I honestly feel we’re so much more. Yes, it’s great that we may have achieved great things in our industries, but at the end of the day, it’s simply a vehicle for us to earn money that we can use for daily living and the purposes of God — the job is not our life itself.

So what do we place our identity on?
For me, it’s being a child of God.

My identity is built on knowing that I was created fearfully and wonderfully (Psalm 139:14) by the Creator, and that He knit me together in my mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13). Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…” This kind of identity is unshakeable because it doesn’t change. Nothing will ever change the fact that God knew us even before we were born and set us apart to do great things.

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

We don’t need to look to external things to find our identity — we already have one through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:9: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.”

It’s easy to look to our jobs, things, and possessions as our value, but these things can easily change, and in the end they’d never satisfy us. I think we get true satisfaction when we live a life that is transformed by the Holy Spirit to be like Christ. When we seek Him more in His Word, we become more like Him by following His teachings. And our love for God is really shown by our obedience to Him — obedience to His Word.

Jesus gave us the ultimate illustration of love by dying on the cross for our sins (John 3:16), and as Christians we’re then meant to express that love to those around us.

1 Peter 4:10 says, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” This means that God has given us different gifts and talents that we are called to use to serve other people by blessing them, helping them, and supporting them. Romans 12:8 even talks about how being good at encouraging others is a gift people can use. By using these gifts to serve others, we bring glory to God. We reflect the love of Christ. It’s not for our own praise but for God’s.

Doing well in the workplace, saving, and investing our money is wonderful — but if we now place our entire identity on those things instead of the One who gave them to us, we’re putting our worth and value on a shaky foundation. Because once those things are removed from our lives, we will feel as though our lives have no meaning, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

Mark 8:36: “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his soul?”