Identity
“The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” 2 Chronicles 16:9
To move beyond adolescent enthusiasm and into a deep experience with God, an undivided heart is absolutely necessary. This means answering some direct questions with unblinking honesty. Who am I? What’s going to be at the center of my life? Where is my loyalty going to be?
God is looking for the man who knows who he is and who will not be afraid to identify with Him. The Lion of the tribe of Judah, as He is called in the Old Testament, seeks lion-hearted sons.
What is our identity in Christ? Before we make one more choice in life, we need to be aware of that identity, and we want it to be strong, just as past winners of Olympic gold medals know that they will forever be identified as an Olympic gold medalist. This explains why these fabulous athletes devote years and years of training for a ten-second sprint, a two minute floor exercise, or a five-minute program in figure skating. Who they are and what they want to become fuels the desire to sacrifice in training.
Intuitively, we know that to perform anything at a world-class level means that we cannot have a divided-heart commitment. And yet the more men we counsel, the more we discover that many men, who understand what it takes to succeed in sport or business or the arts, are perfectly content to go through life with diluted or marginal spiritual outcomes. Why? Because of fear and pain. Practice means correcting failure over and over and over. God will put our spiritual commitment into play over and over to reveal what’s there. He will test it by giving us real-life opportunities to develop a practical consistency, and when we choose Him, He is pleased.
Father, my goal is to choose You over me consistently, and thereby develop spiritual integrity.