Seven questions to ask that might help you deduce who you are and where you fit in God's plan.
Article by: Robert Curry
Imagine that God has placed a name on your back. Now go on wandering about in your daily existence and ask questions to deduce who you are.
You’ve probably played the party game: Somebody tapes a name of some famous person to your back and you mingle around asking questions as you try to figure out who you are. I’m embarrassed to say I can never figure mine out before I get too sore from all the partygoers kicking me!
But if you’d like to play, imagine that God has placed a name on your back. Now go on wandering about in your daily existence and ask questions to deduce who you are:
1. “Am I an animal?”
Nope. After God finished creating the animals after their own kind, “God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness’ … male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:26-27). This says “Our” because it is referring to God—both the Father and the Word (who was Jesus before He became the Son as explained in John 1:1-18). They created humans to become part of Their family, which Jesus referenced when He quoted Psalms 82:6 by saying, “You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High” (Psalms 82:6, John 10:34). Your destiny is to be born at the resurrection into the God family.
2. “Do I have an immortal soul?”
Plato and other philosophers influenced everybody to think so, but the Bible says you are a soul rather than you have a soul (Genesis 2:7). Also, the soul that sins will die (Ezekiel 18:4).
3. “Am I just physical then?”
Nope. You have a “spirit in man”—what puts you on a higher plane than animals—which is meant to be united with God’s Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:11) when the Father chooses that the time is right to call you (John 6:44).
4. “Am I called now?”
If you understand such spiritual concepts: “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord” (Isaiah 55:6-7).
5. “Am I just the nobody I feel like?”
God the Father sacrificed His own Son for you, and He plans to freely give you all things (Romans 8:32). He is ready to share His divine nature with you (2 Peter 1:4).
6. “Am I just going to end up failing such a wondrous purpose for living?”
“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 4:6, emphasis added). Please let God begin the process in you!
7. “Wow! But I still have no idea who I really am.”
“He who overcomes … I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem … And I will write on him my new name” (Revelation 3:12).
Then you will know who you are! For now it’s pretty good being God’s son or daughter with such a future.
Reprinted with permission. Published by United Church of God, an International Association, P.O. Box 541027, Cincinnati, OH 45254-1027. © 2015 United Church of God.
www.ucg.org/good-news-magazine
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