Matthew 5:16 (AMP) “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good deeds and moral excellence, and [recognize and honor and] glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
Luke 20:25 (TPT) Jesus said, “Precisely. The coin bears the image of the Emperor Caesar, and you should give back to Caesar all that belongs to him. But you bear the image of God. So give back to God all that belongs to him.”
2 Corinthians 10:7, 18 (TPT) You seem to always be looking at people by their outward appearances. If someone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should remind himself of this: we belong to Christ no less than he does. So let’s be clear. To have the Lord’s approval and commendation is of greater value than bragging about oneself.
God has recently been highlighting the words “honor” and “humility” to me. As I did word searches on this in the Bible, He also started highlighting the word “belong.” As I pondered and prayed about how all this worked together, He started revealing truth.
We, as children of God, struggle to feel like we belong in this world. The reason for this is we don’t belong in this physical, earthly world. We belong in the Kingdom of God. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we become part of the Kingdom of God, but we still live on earth. We are continually confronted by the lies, manipulations, and all out assault from the kingdom of darkness that tries to convince us we don’t belong unless we receive honor and accolades from the people around us.
Our struggle is against the identity that the world tries to tell us we need to have. The world says that we have to carry a certain image to receive the honor and belonging we desire. This can look like the clothing we wear or the possessions we have or the titles we achieve. We start comparing ourselves to others and struggle to see our worth and value unless we receive honor from people. We can become prideful in our own deeds and not honor God with what He has given us. However, this image or identity is false. We already have honor and belonging because we are God’s children.
We carry God’s image within us that declares we belong to Him. Our honor and our identity do not come from outward things. Give those outward things like money, status, and possessions back to this earthly world and stand in the truth that your identity, belonging, and honor are in Christ Jesus, and nothing can take that away from you!
Walk in this truth and live like Jesus did so that men may honor God because of your actions and not because of your appearance, titles, or possessions. When you walk in your Kingdom identity you will know who you are, and you will have all you need.
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