Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror and wondered who you were? We tend to identify ourselves by where we live, the school we graduated from, our careers, our job title, or any other number of ways. After a while, though, we can have so many roles we’ve taken on that we don’t know who we are anymore and we have an identity crisis. Unless we anchor our identity in something rock-solid and unchanging, we’ll never know who we are.

We Need to Base Our Identity in Christ

Identity relates to our basic values that dictate the choices we make. Sometimes we identify ourselves by our gender, our culture, or our relationships. As women, sometimes our culture tries to force an identity on us that doesn’t fit; sometimes we even make the mistake of identifying ourselves by a toxic relationship. The problem is that if any of the things we use to determine our identity changes or gets stripped away, we’re left wondering, “Who am I?”

Ladies, we don’t have to go through this kind of emotional pain and confusion when we base our identity in Jesus Christ. Being in Christ elevates and stabilizes our lives. He’s the great “I am” who never changes; when we’re able to declare “I am in Him,” we absolutely know who we are beyond a shadow of a doubt. This goes deep and affects every aspect of our lives, including how we think about ourselves and how others see us.

It’s Not Wise to Let the World Define Us

This is bigger than we realize; seventy percent of people base their identity on their role, fifty-one percent base it on what they’ve achieved, and fifty percent base it on the good that they do. “Who I am” may be based on our being the breadwinner, the homemaker, the wife, or the stay-at-home mom, but we’re not what we do! Situations change, and we should base our identity on who God says we are, not on society’s expectations or definitions.

Change is part of life, but we can’t base how we see ourselves on temporary circumstances. We may lose the job we think defined us; the relationship we thought would provide stability ends; the children around whom we centered our daily activities grow up and move out of the house. We’ll always be going through different seasons in life. In all of those seasons, we never lose our true identity when we rest in God.

Social media is another threat to our identity, especially for young people still trying to determine who they are. We’re inundated with people hiding behind fake personas and carefully crafted images they want to project to the world. Scrolling through it long enough blurs the line between who’s being real and who’s just creating a façade to impress others. The best strategy is to step back and let God clarify our true identity before we get completely confused.

Christ Should Be the Only Thing We Boast About

Listening to bragging and boasting can have a negative effect on our self-image and mental health. We often boast about what we’ve done or achieved, or about all the good things we do, but outside of Christ it means nothing. The apostle Paul wrote that he could only boast in the cross of Christ and what it had accomplished. Regardless of all we did outside of Christ before we got born again, we’ll always be better in Him.

We need to know exactly who we are—God’s daughters, sisters in Christ, and His beloved children. Don’t let the world define you, because it’s filled with ungodly influencers outside of Jesus. Stand up and declare yourself in Him!