What is your true Identity?

 We have forgotten who we are.

I once met a refugee from a cruel dictatorship.

He told me how he was abused as a political prisoner.

He had to stand in a pitch-black tiny cell, not sitting and not lying down, and not just for a few hours.

There came a time when he no longer knew his own name.

So many people struggle with insecurity. They ask questions that no one seems to be able to answer.

Who am I?

Why is this world so senseless?

Why are women and children being abducted and why is there no justice?

We read the newspapers and see that child abuse rings are found in churches that are supposed to care for children, and bishops, instead of being holy church fathers, act like cunning politicians and try to protect perverted criminals among the priests.

We must not delude ourselves with the idea that this abuse is only found in the Catholic Church.

It would also be pointless to think that this undercover abuse does not also take place in other religions because the media only shines the spotlight on Christians.

What is going on?

We humans have lost our identity. We have forgotten who we are.
 
A girl dreams that she could become a wife with children, or a doctor or a teacher.

But her home is ruined by political greed for power and corruption. Her family becomes hopelessly poor. She looks for work in a wealthy country, but she is cheated.

She is enslaved and abused as a captive prostitute. In the beginning, she fights against everything. But her resistance is futile. Her situation is hopeless. She is repeatedly raped and drugged until she cannot live without drugs.

She still dreams of finding her old life. She holds the dreams of her childhood in her heart. But when she clings to her true identity, the dirty sexual labour becomes even more terrible.

The conflict between her true identity and her hideous slavery becomes unbearable and the drug helps her to forget her situation a little, but she also begins to lose her original true identity.

How can we react as sincere Christians. Everything looks hopeless.

The problem is that we sincere Christians have also forgotten who we are.

If you belong to Jesus, you are a son or a daughter of God.

But what does it mean to be a son or daughter of God?
 
We have access to God's immeasurable love. But it is not enough to profess this love as a statement of faith.

We must experience this immeasurable love, savour it, be overwhelmed by it.

Without God's glory, we can only save a few lost people.

We need much more from God to free many slaves. Tens of millions are waiting for God's help.

Many Christians are stuck with little more than dry doctrines.

Genuine faith consists not only of conviction and virtue, but should also include wonderful experiences.

So do you have to have heavenly experiences on earth in order to have eternal life?

No. But without wonderful experiences with God, our effectiveness as disciples is limited.

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD shines over you.
For look, darkness will cover the earth, and total darkness the peoples; but the LORD will shine over you, and his glory will appear over you. Is 60:1–2 CSB