Of all the challenges in America today, it seems our sense of identity is perhaps the greatest. There are few of us, if any, who don’t struggle with it. We live with the tension of a life viewed through lenses different than our Creator’s.

In the process, we bear the fruit of this. We are exhausted, stressed, and beaten down. We turn on ourselves and turn on others. We battle hopelessness and despair and depression. Freedom, joy, lightness of heart… these things rarely characterize any of us.

It’s all the byproduct of how we view ourselves. We have old glasses on, and it shows. Our prescription is from days gone by, before we entered the Kingdom of God. We shifted allegiances, having been bought with a price. That salvation came with new glasses, but we’ve just never put them on.

If we had, we’d recognize who we are: 

• We are free people, walking under no condemnation (Romans 8:1).
• We can be filled with joy, finding it in the source of all true joy (Psalm 43:4).
• We can have lightness of heart, focusing not on temporary issues but on eternal truth (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

Freedom, joy, lightness of heart… these are to be the byproduct of a life saved by the gospel of the Lord Jesus.

The problem with correcting our identity is that it’s not an outward issue. Rarely do others call it out in us. So day by day, we tend to manage, focusing more on the issues that others can see. We’re prioritizing our issues based on our perception of others’ perception of us.

Yet when God saved us, He gave us a new identity. And while it’s filled with freedom and joy and lightness of heart, it’s also filled with purpose. We are redeemed soldiers, called to glorify His name by advancing His Kingdom.

So let’s not run from our identity, but charge into it. Let’s attack it, and go after it. Let’s fast and pray and war for the glory of God in our lives. Because only when our identity is right will we be primed to best advance His Kingdom. A wounded soldier is a limited soldier, and it’s time to get our soldiers healed for the glory of His name.

It’s time to put on our new glasses.