For so long...I have wondered what it means when someone says my identity is in Christ. Or Christ is our identity. I never really understood it all. What does it mean? How do you do it? And what does it look like? As I have been reading it has changed my thinking....check it out. In 1 Samuel 8:1-22 Samuel's son was given the role by his father as king over the Israelites. The Israelites did not like his son's ways and complained to Samuel. They desired a king that would lead them like the other nations. Samuel went to God and God said, "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king." Samuel explained what God had said to him to his people but their minds were made up and they started forsaking God and worshiping other gods. The Israelites didn't realize that they were chosen already by God, his treasured possession. They already had an identity. As Kelly Minter says, "As they started to forsake God and follow other gods, they lost sight of what the had and, most important, who they were." Right now, at this moment,we are a part of God's royalty. We are his chosen people. We don't realize it enough but we are treasured so much by our father. Although we may ask what does this look like? To be a part of God's royalty? In Peter 2:11 Christians are described as aliens and strangers to others. "We will be like strangers and aliens because our lives will stand out as so breathtakingly good in compassion with others. As a result those around us will glorify god" (Minter, 39). People will see something so crazy and different in our lives that it will trigger something within them....change. One of my favorite quotes by Donald Miller, "If you believe something passionately, people will follow you." How awesome is this. Now the next question is how do we stay consistent with our identity? First off by keeping goodness in our lives- the fruit of obedience. Staying in his word and setting ourselves away from sinful desires. Sinful desires will ruin our goodness. It causes us to have no identity at all. I guess this has just really been on my heart lately. I want it to be to the point where our identity in Christ is so crazy and different to the lives of others that they will desire what we have. An amazing relationship with our savior!