Your Identity Predicts Your Destiny

Your identity predicts your destiny.

The way you see yourself inextricably links to the ultimate outcomes of your life. That’s why God so often initiated great changes in people’s lives by changing their names or challenging their self-perceptions.

Consider Gideon, just one of many examples.

The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

(Judges 6:11 -16 NIV)

No need to belabor the point here. Clearly, the Angel of the Lord saw Gideon as a “mighty warrior” but Gideon saw himself as the least in his family, which was the weakest in his tribe, which was part of a nation abandoned by God and dominated by enemies.

God wanted to use Gideon but first some work had to be done on Gideon’s image of himself!

I won’t bore you by listing the many other Bible characters with whom God dealt in a similar fashion or by changing their names. If you think about it, you will come up with quite a list yourself!

So what’s the larger point?

Simply this: in God’s strength you are sufficient to the task to which God has called you. Yet you may find yourself fearful or failing or discouraged by obstacles or even blind to opportunities. (The same applies to me or any believer!)

So, I challenge you to ask yourself two questions during this coming week. Reflect upon these and ask God to grant you greater self-awareness:

First, what images do you have of yourself that limit you in pursuing God’s call?

Second, what are the Biblical images of yourself that God would have you adopt in order to see yourself as He sees you?

Do this, you mighty warrior, and see what happens!