After "I Believe"Sample

Day One: The New You

New. 

It’s an amazing word, and there’s rarely a time we don’t like it. A new car, a new year, a new… you. That’s the promise of the Christian life. A new you. 

Understanding this newness is at the heart of developing your life in Christ. If you do not understand your new identity and new position, you will never be able to grow into who you have been called to be. Your new life in Christ is the new identity. And it begins with your new identity as a child of God. 

When you became a Christian, you entered into that relationship with God through adoption. You became a son or daughter. When we come to God, we aren’t just saved from some kind of punishment, given a set of creeds and doctrines, or given our marching orders and told to fall into line. We are adopted into His family as children! 

Being a son or daughter isn’t just a title—it becomes the very beating of God’s heart toward us. Not only does God offer us that identity, but He also wants us to live in light of it. This is key, because a change in identity doesn’t mean anything if it isn’t allowed to speak to how you actually live. God wants us to live as sons and daughters, and to let that new identity form the deepest understanding of who we are and how we relate to Him! 

But you are more than a son or daughter. As His child, God has also declared you to be a saint. 

The word saint means “those who are set apart,” meaning someone who has been freed from the chains of sin, not to mention the consequences of sin. 

God doesn’t just declare us saints positionally; He also wants us to develop into saints functionally. When you become a Christian, God has a very clear agenda for your life: it’s to make you like Jesus. It’s to take your life and have you become the person He has declared you to be. It’s as if God says, “You’re a saint—now live like one! And I’ll show you the way.” 

In the days to come, we’ll explore how to become the saint God has declared you to be as His child. 

In God’s eyes, you are both His child and a saint. What does that declaration mean to you personally? What might it look like for you to practically assume that new identity in your everyday life?