The Four Signs Satan is Winning – #4: We lose sight of who we are in Christ
Last year, I wrote a book called, What You Do Shows Who You Are: The 6 Marks of a Disciple of Jesus, and in it, I lay out the 6 Marks that we would see growing in the life of a fully-devoted follower of Jesus. The first Mark in this book is that a disciple of Jesus is fully identified in who they are in Christ through a deep understanding of what Christ has done for us. One of the ways we can know if Satan is winning over Christ in our lives is if we buy into the lies he is constantly telling us as he tries to get us off track in our lives in Christ. Because I can’t state this any better than I already have in the book, here’s an excerpt from Chapter 2 of my book What You Do Shows Who You Are: The 6 Marks of a Disciple of Jesus:
The enemy’s clear strategy here is that if he can distort who we really are and disrupt our identity in Christ, he has won! That’s what he wanted to accomplish! How does he typically do this? Many times, he works through the opinions of others, through hurt and pain. and through the unrealistic expectations that media and culture place on us.
In this battle for our minds, Satan tries to put thoughts in our heads. We all know this battle as we have heard these attacks:
- ‘I’m not good enough to earn God’s acceptance and love’
- ‘I’m not important to anyone’
- ‘I’ll never amount to anything….’
And then he attacks even deeper:
- ‘You know that sin you committed, you could never be forgiven for that one.’
- ‘What about that failed marriage or failed business, how could God continue to love you after that?’
- ‘You never do anything right….’
Sound familiar?
And here’s the kicker: You know he has won the battle when he gets you to repeat the accusations that he planted in your mind.
If these lies of Satan hit a little too close to home, I have really good news for you! We do not have to permanently live in these lies. God thinks of you much differently than Satan would have you believe! Through Christ, our identity looks much different. Look through and study this incomplete list of who the Bible says we are through Christ.
In Christ, we are
- A new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17)
- His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works (Ephesians 2:10)
- No longer condemned (Romans 8:1)
- Children of God (Galatians 3:26)
- Holy temples (1 Corinthians 6:19)
- Overcomers (Romans 8:37)
- Loved by God (1 Thessalonians 1:4)
- Not given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-control
- Friends of Jesus (John 15:14)
- Children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness (1 Corinthians 5:5)
- Ambassadors of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20)
- God’s masterpieces (Ephesians 2:10)
- Seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6)
- Able to do all things through him who strengthens us. (Philippians 4:13)
- Recipients of the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, and will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7)
- God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved (Ephesians 1:4)
- Wise and restored (I Corinthians 1:30)
Take a moment to just pause and reflect. Look through the list again. If you repeated this list to yourself each morning when you awake, replacing the ‘We’ for ‘I’…. I am God’s chosen one, I am God’s masterpiece, I am a new creation in Christ, etc., how would that change how you identify or think of yourself? I believe that every day we get to choose if we identify with Satan’s version of us, or with what the Bible says we are through Christ.
In the next post, I’ll have a final ‘wrap up’ post as we look at how we can find victory in Christ over Satan and his schemes!