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Stolen Identity

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Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone, and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  (1 Peter 2:1-9 NIV)
 
 
When the devil came to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, he goaded them to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that God had told them not to eat. What did the serpent promise? That in the moment they ate of the forbidden fruit their eyes would be opened and they would be like God, knowing good and evil. Don't miss the lie in that promise. Didn't God create them in His image? Weren't they already as much like God as they would ever be? By casting doubt on their identity, Satan was able to steal the image of God within them.
 
When Jesus was led into the desert for forty days to be tempted by the devil, what did the devil say to Him? "If you are the Son of God..." You might call him the original skeptic. It worked on Adam and Eve in the Garden; would it also work on Jesus in the desert? Could he make Jesus doubt who He was and thereby steal the image of God within Him? Not a chance! Jesus overcame Satan's lies and half-truths with the ultimate truth - the word of God.
 
How about you? Do you know who you are? Do you know that you're chosen? Set apart for God? You weren't created to be ordinary or to just eke out a mundane existence. You are not a weak worm of the dust. You were created for a higher purpose. If Jesus is your Savior, you have the Greater One abiding within you. You were created for a relationship with Almighty God. You were created to walk with Him as Adam and Eve did before the fall. You were created to love Him, to worship Him, and to receive His incredibly abundant, unconditional love in return. God created mankind because He wanted a family. God redeemed mankind through Jesus because He wanted to restore that relationship with the family He created. You are precious to God. Has the devil stolen that image from within you?
 
Heavenly Father, You know each person reading this message today. You know the ups and downs of their life; You know the strategies the enemy has deployed against them. Father, I pray that where their identity has been stolen, You would restore it. Where the image of Christ within them has been shattered, I ask You to bring healing. Precious Balm of Gilead, wrap each one in Your loving embrace today. I ask it in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

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