Identity Theft

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(iMac / Affinity Photo / image from gov.uk used as illustration only)

Jesus in the Bible said this:

“A thief (the devil) has only one thing in mind—he wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy. But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect —life in its fullness until you overflow!”

John 10.10 (The Passion Translation)

True Story

Someone known to me once had their identity stolen. This meant a criminal had found out about them and then lied, pretending to be them. When this person tried to prove their real identity to the bank, this other fraudster said they were lying. It took months for them to prove they were the real person, meaning they couldn’t get access to their bank account.

But identity theft is nothing new. The devil has been doing this for thousands of years.

The Net (old skool movie!)

Back in 1995 (yes the internet was around then!), there was a movie called ‘The Net’ released about the theft of a woman’s identity. Watch the clip and be amazed at the old skool graphics, disk drives and computers!

Direct link (active August 2020) – https://youtu.be/CHd7Z0CITP0

Your Identity

  • Who are you?
  • Who do you think you are?
  • Who do other people say you are?
  • Who does God say you are?

The truth is that in the world, the devil is very busy twisting and tricking and lying to people about their identity. Just like in Genesis 3, he gets people to doubt that God is good and that God is for us and not against us. The devil pretends that God is trying to control us and that we need to be free from God. Because people don’t know what to believe (or don’t even want to believe in God), they start to find their identity in all kinds of places and in loads of things that will never satisfy them or bring them real joy on the inside.

What did Jesus say about the devil?

“He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

John 8.44

Maybe you feel like you’ve had your identity stolen through bad things in life or through things that have been said. Maybe you’ve had a hard life or even that you think you’ve done too much that is bad. Or maybe you’ve got caught up in lifestyles that are against God’s best and don’t know who you are. Or maybe you just need a reminder of what God says…

Finding our Identity in God

  1. God is our creator and knows us inside out
  2. God loves you and made you unique
  3. God paid the highest price for you
  4. God has a good plan for your life that you find as you trust Him
  5. God the Father calls you family

1. God is our creator and knows us inside out

I once made a little wooden boat. Having carved it out, I added a mast and a sail and then painted it. Some of the parts could be taken apart and then put back together. I knew that little boat well because I made it. God feels the same way about you and me. He made us (the Bible says God is into ‘knitting’ in Psalm 139, saying he ‘knitted us together’, weaving a complex pattern of bones, skin, blood and incredibly complex DNA that science can’t fully understand). So God knows you, made you and this should give you value. You’re not just anyone – you are a daughter or a son of Royalty (God).

2. God loves you and made you unique

You are absolutely unique. There are many things God has made unique in our world (eyes, fingerprints, snowflakes). In fact everything in the world is made by God and is unique. Forget ‘etsy.com’ or ‘wayfair.co.uk’, God was the original artisan making unique high quality products! But the pinnacle (the best thing) God made was man and woman. You are very special. Man and woman are not animals. Don’t believe the lies from the devil. Man and woman alone have God’s ‘life’ breathed into them. It only really comes alive when we say yes to Jesus but that ‘life breath’ of God is inside everyone. You are unique – made by God in his image but not a clone.

3. God paid the highest price for you

Things are only worth the value that someone pays for them. I sometimes list on ebay and when it’s on auction, it sells for the highest price that someone wants to pay for it. When Jesus died on the cross (he gave his life willingly), what he did was to pay the very highest price for you that anyone could ever pay. What this means is that you have the very highest value that anything could ever have.

4. God has a good plan for your life that you find as you trust Him

God has a good plan for each of us. Not everything that happens in the world is good – but God is good. If you define ‘good’ in the very best way, you’d say ‘God’ (the words are pretty similar in English too!) Now if we know that God loves us, that we are unique, that we have value, it’s also good to know that God has made us for a good reason! People who reject God believe that we are ‘cosmic accidents’ and have no purpose. How depressing – no wonder they’re so miserable!! Here’s what the Bible says:

“So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose.”

Romans 8.28, The Passion Translation (a version of the Bible)

5. God the Father calls you family

When Jesus spoke to his friends in John 14.6, he spoke about himself and said that he was the ‘way, the truth and the life.’ Many people know that and are right to quote it. But the way where? If there is a ‘way’, where is it going? Jesus carried on to say ‘no one can get to the Father except through me’. He wasn’t being arrogant or exclusive but being truthful. Only Jesus has the ‘key’ to open the door to the Father (another name for God). When you say yes to Jesus in your life, you become part of a massive family of millions of people who believe in Jesus around the world. We call this the ‘church’. But more than that, we have a perfect, loving Father called God.

In the Bible we learn of the story of a son who ran off from his father, taking loads of money, living it up until he was broke. He came home, ashamed expecting to be treated badly. But instead his Father was waiting for him, ran out and just loved him. That is a picture of God.

In Ephesians 1.5-6 it says that Jesus adopted us into his family and says that now we’re ‘accepted in the beloved’ (funny set of words!) The same word for ‘accepted’ was used in Luke 1.28 when the young Mary (mother of Jesus) was visited by an angel who called her ‘highly favoured one’. So we can say that Jesus adopts you into his family and calls you ‘highly favoured’.

So next time the devil tries to rob you of your identity you can tell him where to go!!

You have been created by God; made unique; you’re hand-crafted and knitted together; you’re the high point of God’s creative work; you are worth the highest price that God could ever pay; your life has meaning and value; you have a good purpose and plan for your life and you are a highly favoured part of God’s family!