Remember Who You Are

Has it ever happened to you that you walked into a room and forgot why? Or had a plan or grocery list, but by the time you got to the location you forgot the plan and most of the list? It can be confusing and maybe a little frustrating. Isn’t that how life works sometimes, too. You get a few years down the road and forget why you started on this path. You don’t know how you got here or when the years passed by so fast. Maybe you stopped going to church. Maybe you’ve stopped praying as often or aren’t really reading Scripture too much. Or you open the Bible and wonder where you’re supposed to start because it’s all confusing. I mean, how are we supposed to make sense of it? And all this thinking brought back a reminder of the movie The Lion King. Simba has run away from home, scared to return. Then the years go by and he’s forgotten everything of his past life, until Simba learns of what’s become of his homeland. In a moment of despair and frustration, he begins looking for answers in the stars. The image of his father comes to Simba and says Simba, remember who you are. He was the rightful king and needed to be reminded of that fact. No matter how the years had gone. No matter how far he ran away. He was still king. 

Truth be told, we need to remember who we are at times. The years fly by too fast. But we have been claimed for a purpose. From the very beginning. God spoke through Moses to the enslaved people of Israel saying I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord’” (Exodus 6:7-8 NIV).

Through the years, God’s chosen people became more than a single nation. Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price so that we might have salvation. And Peter had to remind the church of that fact saying you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Peter 2:9-10 NIV).

Our lives, as believers, have been claimed for a purpose. To share the Good News of Jesus Christ. That He will return one day as the Lion of Judah to claim His people. Remember who you are today! A people brought out of our sin and shame. Given a fresh start and a new identity. So that we might in turn, lift the name of Jesus high and say to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father - to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen (Revelation 1:5b-6 NIV).