Staying Loyal to Our Core Identity as Children of God, and Using It to Create Unity

27 June, 202026 June, 2020Marissa

Who and what are you?

We can all answer this question a variety of different ways. Our identities are multifaceted things — human, female, Christian, daughter, American, writer, friend, white, Midwestern (to give you some of mine). Some are chosen by us, some are given by God, nature, or other people. The things we identify with, wherever those identities come from, shape who are are.

Sometimes our identities might be in conflict with each other, or with those of other people. We need to be able to handle and resolve those conflicts. On the small scale, it might be something like “student” vs. “friend” (such as finding a balance between needing time to study and finding time to maintain friendships). On a larger scale, it might be something like “national” vs. “religious” (such as wanting to uphold your country’s ideals, but finding some of them at odds with your faith, and needing to choose between them). Or it could be an interpersonal situation where you find yourself interacting with people who have different political affiliations, ethnicities, faiths, and priorities than you do.

How we resolve these inner and outer conflicts says something about who we are and what we value. As Christians, we have an identity that is meant to be first in our priorities and underlie every other part of our lives. But we don’t always live as if this is truly the case. Sometimes we choose to put other beliefs and identities first, and if we do that too often it can damage our relationship with our primary identity as children of God.

Staying Loyal to Our Core Identity as Children of God, and Using It to Create Unity | LikeAnAnchor.com — Photo credit: Claudine Chaussé via Lightstock

The Problem of Conflicting Identities

I recently listened to a podcast episode titled “A First Step Toward Racial Reconciliation,” which was an interview with Mark Vroegop. His book Weep with Me: How Lament Opens A Door For Racial Reconciliation is coming out next month. In this interview, he talks about how the church should be the best place to resolve racial differences because “the gospel creates an identity that gets underneath all other identities.” Read more →

The Benefits of Living In Covenant With God

30 May, 202011 December, 2023Marissa

In his letter to believers in Rome, Paul asked, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” He goes on to explain that God, who gave up His own son for us, will freely give us everything we need. And because God is all powerful and the One who has final say in judgement, nothing can separate us from His love even if the trials we face kill us (Rom. 8:31-39).

Is that a contradiction? One moment Paul says nothing could stand against us, then suddenly he’s talking about us being killed? It might seem odd at first, but Paul’s focus isn’t on the people of God avoiding physical trials and suffering. Physical protection and healing can (and often do!) happen, but that is not our main concern.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us!
Romans 8:35-37, NET, with quotation from Ps 44:22

Paul quotes from a psalm that laments the deaths of God’s covenant people and asks God not to reject them forever (Ps. 44:17-26). It seems that Paul would tell the Psalmist, and us, that suffering does not mean God has forsaken us. In fact, we “have complete victory” even in the midst of all that.

Bold, Rational Confidence

I don’t want to deal with trouble (G2347, thlipsis, tribulation and affliction that’s external), distress (G4730, stenochoria, great distress, particularly inner distress), persecution (G1375, diogmos, pursuit, persecution), famine (G3042, limos), nakedness (G1132, gumnotes, total lack of clothing), danger (G2794, kindunos, peril), or sword (G3162, machaira, a sword for slaughter or execution). I dare say none of us do. But Paul makes it sound like it wouldn’t be a big deal. And he should know, considering all he went through (2 Cor. 11:23-28). When Paul talks about suffering as a Christian, he speaks from experience.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39, NET

Paul’s confidence isn’t just based on hear-say. It is based in faith as well as first-hand experience. To quote Adam Clarke’s commentary, “The confidence expressed by the apostle at the end of this chapter is as rational as it is bold.” This section of Romans is a brilliant piece of writing and a glorious affirmation that those who trust God have nothing to worry about. We’ve already more than won the battle through the victory of Him who loves us.

The Benefits of Living In Covenant With God | LikeAnAnchor.com — Photo credit: Who Is Like The Lord via Lightstock

Faithful To The Covenant

That kind of makes it sound like there’s nothing left for us to do, though, and that is not the overall message of Romans. Going back to the Psalm that Paul quotes from, we find a line that reads, “All this has come on us, yet we haven’t forgotten you. We haven’t been false to your covenant” (Ps. 44:17, WEB). Paul’s background was that of a Jewish rabbi, and in their writings they often quote part of an Old Testament passage and assume their readers will connect the present argument to that passage’s larger context. Paul is writing about covenants, and he expects us to understand that.

With that in mind, I think the parallel Clarke draws is a sound one. He writes, “We abide faithful in the new covenant of our God; and He is faithful who has promised to support and make us more than conquerors; i.e. to give us a complete triumph over sin, and death, and hell, not leaving one enemy unsubdued” (commentary on Rom. 8:37). It reminds me of something else Paul wrote in another letter.

This saying is trustworthy:
If we died with him, we will also live with him.
If we endure, we will also reign with him.
If we deny him, he will also deny us.
If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, since he cannot deny himself.
2 Timothy 2:11-13, NET

There’s a reciprocal aspect to our relationship with God. It’s actually connected to grace, though that’s too big a topic to dive into now (here’s a link to a great booklet on the subject). His faithfulness is a constant, but we can’t reap the benefits of it without being in covenant with Him and remaining faithful ourselves.

Remember to Ask For Help

God is eager to help His people, but we have to be willing to let Him. It seems strange that we’d ever reject God’s help, but a story from one of Judah’s kings shows that it does happen. Asa was one of the good kings who “did that which was good and right in Yahweh his God’s eyes” (2 Chr. 14:2-4, WEB). He demonstrated a reliance on God when his enemies attacked, praying for and receiving deliverance (2 Chr. 14:9-15). After this, God sent a prophet to tell him, “Yahweh is with you, while you are with him; and if you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will forsake you” (2 Chr. 15:2, WEB). This isn’t anything so crude as a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” bargain. There’s covenant obligations in relationship, as we’ll see shortly.

The writer of Chronicles tells us “the heart of Asa was perfect all his days” (2 Chr. 15:17, WEB). We also know that he and the people of Judah “entered into the covenant to seek Yahweh, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul” (2 Chr. 15:12, WEB). But even so, something happened. In the 36th year of Asa’s reign, he turned to the king of Syria to handle a problem with the king of Israel instead of turning to God. After this happened, God sent a seer to remind Asa where his trust should have been and explain why things didn’t work out so well (2 Chr. 16:1-7).

“Weren’t the Ethiopians and the Lubim a huge army, with chariots and exceedingly many horsemen? Yet, because you relied on Yahweh, he delivered them into your hand. For Yahweh’s eyes run back and forth throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. You have done foolishly in this; for from now on you will have wars.”
2 Chronicles 16:8-9, WEB

Asa’s heart was perfect, and so God was eagerly looking out for opportunities to act on his behalf. He had already spotted this situation, but Asa decided not to ask for help and instead trust himself, a pattern which continued the rest of this life (2 Chr. 16:10-13). Asa lost the help available from God because he did not ask for the benefits of being in covenant with God.

God is Eager To Hear From You

I wonder how often we miss out on God’s eagerness to show Himself strong on our behalf simply because we don’t think to ask. Maybe the main thing we need to do in order to have Paul’s perspective on life’s extreme challenges is to turn to God and ask Him for help. God has a different perspective on things than we do, and sometimes He sees the things that seem most overwhelming and challenging to us in a completely different way (this is a major lesson of Job).

You don’t have, because you don’t ask. You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
James 4:2-3, WEB

Just before the “If God is for us, who can be against us?” passage, Paul says that even if we don’t know what to pray the Spirit will fill in the gaps so long as we turn to God. He also assures us, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose,” and points us to focus on our future glory as children of God (Rom. 8:28-30, WEB).

Nothing can separate us from Christ’s love. Nothing can vanquish us because He has already won the pivotal battle of the war we’re fighting. We need to stick close to Him (i.e. love him with a perfect heart and stay faithful to the covenant) because it’s in Him that “we are more than conquerors” (Rom. 8:37, WEB). Beyond that, all we need to do to have Paul’s confidence is to remember to always turn to God and ask Him to share His help, strength, and perspective with us. Confidence and peace, knowing that God will not abandon you, is one of the chief benefits to living in covenant with God.

Featured image credit: Aaron Kitzo via Lightstock

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Persevere, Grow, Love: Jesus’s Message To The End-Time Believers

23 May, 202022 May, 2020Marissa

A lot of people want to know if we’re living in the end times. Is this it? Have the events of Revelation started? Will Jesus return soon? And there are plenty of people willing to answer them by setting dates, making predictions, or identifying the mark of the beast. There’s much fear, much distraction, and an eagerness — sometimes almost a desperation — to figure things out. We often overlook that the apostle John offered a simple answer to this question nearly 2,000 years ago.

Little children, these are the end times, and as you heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen. By this we know that it is the final hour. (1 John 2:18, all quotes from WEB translation)

We are living in the end times, and have been for as long as there’s been a new covenant church. Whether Christ returns this year, the next, or 100 years from now the things He had to say about how His people should prepare for the end of this world do apply to us. An end will come for each of us one way or another (whether we die or Christ returns before that), and we are told to be ready.

Near the end of His human ministry, Jesus’s disciples asked, “tell us, when will these things be? What is the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?” (Matt. 24:3). In Matthew 24:4-41 He answered their question by describing what “the beginning of sorrows” will look like, how things will get worse, and signs that His coming is near. He also clarifies that we do not know “the day or hour” but that we can still be ready and watchful. He then expounds on how to do that through a series of parables. Read more →

A Time For Discernment and Standing For What’s Right

16 May, 202015 May, 2020Marissa

We’re going through a pandemic right now, and it has given us the opportunity to ask ourselves some interesting and challenging questions. Take, for example, the issue of closing churches. Here in Ohio, churches are exempt from the order to limit public gatherings to 10 people or less. This is a right and proper application of the separation between church and state. Most churches here moved online, however, following the recommendation of medical and legal counsel. This was also right and proper, for the Bible tells us to respect governing authority (Rom. 13:1-2; Tit. 3:1-2; 1 Pet. 2:13-17) and quarantine the sick (Lev. 13:46; Num. 5:1-3). Just in the last couple weeks, some churches are starting to reopen with social distancing and other precautions in place.

Things didn’t go so well everywhere. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio threatened to permanently close churches and synagogues if they continued to hold any services. In Mississippi, attendees of a drive-in church services were ticketed $500 for sitting in their cars listening to the pastor on the radio (the DOJ has stepped in on behalf of the church). Some consider churches “essential services,” some do not. Some try to use the crisis to discriminate against religious institutes, others work alongside and defend them.

Jesus warned there will be those who persecute His church. There will be people who try to stop us from meeting, preaching and worshiping rightly. It has already happened throughout history in various places around the world. To be clear, I am not saying encouraging churches to temporarily suspend in-person services during a pandemic is persecution. But this does give us a reminder that we need to be watchful and exercise discernment. This is a good time to ask ourselves questions like, How would we respond if churches were asked to close for a different reason? Or ordered to stay closed, as threatened in New York? What if we were told we could no longer own Bibles, as has happened in other countries?

I don’t bring up these sorts of questions to panic us, but to prepare us. We are told to watch and be ready, and it’s hard to do that if you’re not thinking of things that might happen in the future. We are living in the end times (as humanity has been since the first century per 1 John 2:18). This is a time for discernment and preparedness, and the current crisis can serve as a wake-up call for any of us who may have been growing complacent in the safety and freedom we’ve enjoyed for so long. Read more →

The Central Question of Job: A Broader Perspective On Suffering

9 May, 20208 May, 2020Marissa

Suffering, and questions about why God allows it, are the main thing Job and his friends talk about through the majority of the Bible book that bears Job’s name. We often say that it is a book about suffering. Since reading Philip Yancey’s book The Bible Jesus Read, however, I’ve realized Job’s story is actually about a whole lot more than suffering.

Yancey says that if you’d asked him what Job was about, he would have once said, “It’s the Bible’s most comprehensive look at the problem of pain and suffering” (p. 46). But then he took a closer look. Job asks all the questions we want God to answer about suffering, but then the book points us to a completely different way of looking at the problem.

The Stage Is Set

The book of Job begins by setting the stage for a dramatic story. We’re introduced to Job, a man who “was blameless and upright, and turned away from evil” (Job 1:1, quotes from WEB translation unless otherwise noted). He had ten children and exceedingly great wealth, as we’d expect such a good man to have in light of God’s promises to bless those who follow Him. And then something happened.

Unbeknownst to Job, he becomes the central figure in a wager between Yahweh (God’s proper name, see Ex. 3:14-15) and Satan (which means adversary). The “god of this world,” who actively opposes all Yahweh’s plans, comes before Yahweh and issues a challenge in response to a question.

Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.”

Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Haven’t you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face.” (Job 1:8-11)

God holds up Job as an example of a faithful person. Satan challenges that Job only follows God because he gets something out of it. This begins what Yancey calls “a cosmic drama in heaven — the contest over Job’s faith” (p. 49). Satan has attacked God’s character, alleging that He basically bribes people to follow Him. God gives Job the opportunity to prove otherwise (p. 52). Read more →

Don’t Give Up! Keep Running Your Race of Faith Without Looking Back

2 May, 20202 May, 2020Marissa

Do you ever feel stuck in the past and discouraged by how hard it is to move forward? You’re a Christian and you know that’s supposed to give you hope, but somehow that just doesn’t seem to be the case.

It’s disheartening to feel as if you can’t move forward from your past or that there is no way out of your present. Especially if you feel like you’ve done something so wrong or your circumstances are so hopeless that there’s no point trying to fix things. These sorts of worries weigh us down emotionally and spiritually. They can make us feel heavy, foggy, and hopeless (and may lead to other symptoms of depression as well).

Jesus never promised that life as a Christian would be without trials. He only promised to help us through those trials, and since He has all power and authority in heaven and earth this is an incredible promise (Matt. 28:18). It can be easy, though, to lose sight of the big picture and get distracted by all sorts of nasty things that cling to us, weighing us down and making it hard to keep moving forward. We might wonder how to get unstuck, or even if it’s possible.

The Cage Door Is Open

One thing I’ve realized is that most of the things that are holding onto me are also, at least to some extent, things that I’m holding onto right back. Jesus promises to make us free and to wash us clean of any sin. If we stay in a cage or keep rolling in the dirt, then it’s not because He has failed in some way. It’s because we’re still susceptible to the attacks of the enemy and the pulls of the world.

I don’t say this to make us feel guilty or ashamed (that’s another thing that weighs us down, and shame is not a productive emotion). I want to encourage you to shift your perspective. Instead of seeing yourself as a victim trapped in a locked cage made from whatever’s holding on to you (fear, past sins, personal shortcomings, etc), you can picture yourself as someone in an open cage where God is holding the door and asking you to come out. He knows it’s hard. He knows it’s frightening. He knows there are often circumstances outside your control that keep pulling you backwards. But He isn’t giving up and He’ll be there patiently helping you for as long as it takes. Read more →