Identity.

I am so very tired. Today was my seventh consecutive day working, and third closing shift in a row. I am very much looking forward to a couple of days off starting tomorrow. Life seems overwhelming or even discouraging at times, but there is much to be thankful for.

Today, I was reading through Matthew 16, and there are four verses that I keep receiving knowledge of our identity from. Jesus is speaking to Peter, but it is as if he is speaking to all of us. He is affirming Peter in who he is, and telling him of what God has promised him in this life. There is such power in that promise! It is such an encouragement to know that Jesus himself told us that he has given us the keys to the kingdom!

There are some things that we are born with that are flawed; weak. It is in these areas that God can show his glory the greatest, by making us strong. I think I can relate to this passage a lot, because I believe I am tempermentally a lot like Peter. I look at the things he said and did, and I think we are probably not that different. He talks a lot, sometimes without thinking. He is passionate, yet weak-willed and without commitment. He is emo and has mood swings. Yet God created him for such an awesome purpose. He used who Peter was, and he transformed the weak and flawed areas to create a new identity who was truly a force to be reckoned with. All because Peter believed, and chose to follow his Jesus.

Matthew 16:16-19

Simon Peter answered and said: "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."

Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on the earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on the earth will be loosed in heaven."