scripture: daniel 1:3-1:7

Méditations dévotionnelles de la Parole de Dieu avec le pasteur Raymond Perron

As a group we talk a lot about knowing who Jesus is. The identity of Jesus Christ and our understating of who He is is important. We usually do a good job of this, but we often fall short of undersigned who we are as a child of God. To be used of God in the way He wants, we must understand what we posses as a child of God. The enemy wants to undermine that knowledge. We are strangers in this land. We are to be in the world, but we are not of this world. There is something that separates us. As a stranger in this land, we face a bit of an identity crisis. The world sets certain priorities for life and success, but those are greatly different than God's definition. If the bible says that something that makes us a success, we must follow that. God believes in establishing an identity. If God created it, it was created with a purpose and an identity. The identity must be established before the purpose can be realized. The enemy knows this. If he can confuse our identity, he can thwart God's purpose. The devil knows that he cannot change our view of God. We will always see God as mighty and righteous so the concentrates on convincing us that we are not worthy of God's love. If the enemy can make us doubt who we are, he can make us doubt what we can do. Many people will spend their entire life trying to define themselves. As a child of God we are not defined by our bank account, or our wardrobe, or the kind of car we drive. As a child of God, we are defined by God. The challenge is not to define ourselves, but to identify ourselves with God and His purpose. In Christ, we are more than a conquer. A person with no sense of identity is unstable. If we have no identity, we will be blown by the winds of opinion and emotion. If we know our identity, we know that we are what the word of God says we are. In our text, the babylonians tried to affect their identity. He tried to give them strange foods. He changed their customs. He tried to change their names. Each of these boy’s names were a reference to God and HIs power and might. The babylonian names were all references to pagan gods. These four young men made up in their minds that they knew who they were. These four men stood up and refused to take the king’s meat and drink. They refused to stop praying. They refused to bow to the false god. They knew who the were and their circumstances did not change who they were. The Babylonians forced them to change their names, but when Daniel wrote the story of his life, he refused to give up his identity as s who God said he was. There is something powerful about not letting our reality change our identity. Daniel refused to be redefined, and eventually he went back to what he was: Royalty. Daniel rose again to be ruler of Babylonian as a child of God. Daniel may have been labeled Belteshazzar but he never forgot who he was. We may be wearing a label given to us by the world, but we are still called by God to be something more than what our current circumstances appear to be. No matter our background, no matter our pedigree, God has a purpose for us. Our current circumstance do not dictate that purpose. Our current circumstances to not define who we are. If we identify ourselves as a child of God, we can fulfil the purpose God has for us. can do. Many people will spend their entire life trying to define themselves. As a child of God we are not defined by our bank account, or our wardrobe, or the kind of car we drive. As a child of God, we are defined by God. The challenge is not to define ourselves, but to identify ourselves with God and His purpose. In Christ, we are more than a conquer. A person with no sense of identity is unstable. If we have no identity, we will be blown by the winds of opinion and emotion. If we know our identity, we know that we are what the word of God says we are. In our text, the babylonians tried to affect their identity. He tried to give them strange foods. He changed their customs. He tried to change their names. Each of these boy’s names were a reference to God and HIs power and might. The babylonian names were all references to pagan gods. These four young men made up in their minds that they knew who they were. These four men stood up and refused to take the king’s meat and drink. They refused to stop praying. They refused to bow to the false god. They knew who the were and their circumstances did not change who they were. The Babylonians forced them to change their names, but when Daniel wrote the story of his life, he refused to give up his identity as s who God said he was. There is something powerful about not letting our reality change our identity. Daniel refused to be redefined, and eventually he went back to what he was: Royalty. Daniel rose again to be ruler of Babylonian as a child of God. Daniel may have been labeled a Belteshazzar, slave, but he never forgot who he was. We may be wearing a label given to us by the world, but we are still called by God to be something more than what our current circumstances appear to be. No matter our background, no matter pour pedigree, God has a purpose for us. Our current circumstance do not dictate that purpose. Our current circumstances to not define who we are. If we identify God as a child of God, we can fulfil the purpose God has for us.