How Do We Identify Ourselves? (Part 10)

Monday, 12th October 2026

The last 9 posts were about my 30+ year career, spanning more than half of my life, and what very much defined me as a person.

Like what I mentioned in the very first post, society tends to tie men's identity to their profession.

In his Children's Day sermon on 4 Oct 2026, Ps Lawrence talked about how many parents hope their children grow up to become a doctor, a lawyer or an engineer (he did not mention accountants or architects, but you get the picture).  But we should just be happy that they are our children, and wonderful gifts from God.  As parents we should love them for who they are, just like how God loves us because of who we are.

It was thus also so apt that just 2 days later, on 6 Oct 2026, the Gospel Partner app's Day & Night Devo was on the very topic about IDENTITY!

The sermon snippet for that day, "Your New Identity in Christ" is a true classic, preached by Ps Prince on 7 May 2000.

A friend actually passed me the cassette version of his sermon to convert into MP3 format.

Ps Prince says it best, so I am reproducing the devotional in full below:

You Are More than Just What You Do

Let me ask you something that might catch you off guard.

If someone asked you, “Who are you? Not what you do, not where you work, not what your title is, but truly, who are you?”

What would you say?

It’s harder to answer than it sounds, isn’t it?

What we do is so deeply woven into the way we relate to one another. We meet someone new, and within the first few minutes, it comes up: “So, what do you do?” And without even thinking, we hand them a label. A title. A function.

“I’m in finance.”

“I’m a stay-at-home mum.”

“I run my own business.”

“I’m in full-time ministry.”

Now, there’s nothing wrong with any of that. The Lord gives us our vocations for a reason. Just as He put Adam in the garden to tend it, not as a punishment but as a gift, the Lord designed us to find real satisfaction in meaningful work. He knows exactly how we’re wired and what will bring us a sense of purpose and fulfilment.

But if we are not careful, we can let the gift become lord over us. Many people strive their whole lives, trying to ascend that corporate ladder or attain that prestigious office overlooking the city.

And it’s not just in the corporate world. Even at home, a mother can let caring for her children weigh on her so much that every parenting mistake, every difficult season with a child, can land on her like a personal verdict. It crushes her sense of self.

That’s why I want to remind you today: Don’t tie your identity to what you do. You are not just what you do. You are so much more.

After all, you are a human being, aren’t you? Not a “human doing.”

Here’s what I’ve noticed. When our identity rests on what we do, we become fragile in ways we don’t expect.

We take criticism of our work more personally than we need to. We compare. We compete. We feel unsettled when someone else seems to be doing what we do, only better. We cling to titles and positions longer than we should, because letting them go feels like losing a piece of ourselves.

That’s not what the Lord desires for you.

Look at this piece of wisdom from the apostle Paul about what we choose to build our lives with in 1 Corinthians 3:12–13:

“Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.”

Paul captures it so well here. He talks about two categories of building materials: wood, hay, and straw on one side; gold, silver, and precious stones on the other.

Now, the wood, hay, and straw? That’s everything you accumulate and build on the outside. The titles, achievements, and roles you occupy. These things are purely temporal… and when the fire comes, they don’t hold up.

But the gold, silver, and precious stones? That’s what the Lord has already established in you through Christ.

Your identity as a son or daughter of the Most High.  Your standing as a new creation. Your righteousness that’s been given, not earned. Your belovedness that’s not contingent on your performance.

These are things the fire cannot touch.

Now, I want you to believe this without reservation: The Lord absolutely wants you to flourish in what you do. He wants to give you skill in your vocation, wisdom in your decisions, and favor that opens doors you could never have pushed open on your own. He is not asking you to care less about your work.

But He doesn’t want you in a place that leaves you exposed and vulnerable. He wants the blessings in your life to endure and truly serve you.

A lady can say, “I am a mother,” but what happens when the children grow up and leave the nest? Will she know who she is when the house goes quiet?

What about the man who says, “I’m a banker.” What happens the day he leaves the bank?

Or consider the leader in ministry who has built their whole sense of self around their title. Who are they when the season of leading comes to an end?

Let me ask you this question.

When our position or our roles change… when the trappings of our fancy corporate titles are stripped away… who are we, really?

That’s the question the Lord wants to help you answer. Not just when the moment of crisis comes, but now, from a place of security and rest.

So today, whatever you’re walking into, whatever you’re carrying, will you take a moment to recalibrate?

You are not your job title. You are not your output. You are not the sum of what you’ve built or produced or led.

You are a son. A daughter. Loved before you did a single thing to earn it, and loved still on the days you feel like you’ve done nothing right.

That’s who you are. And that’s what will truly endure, even through difficult times.

And so dear friends, this is how we should identify ourselves.  We are new creations, sons and daughters of God the Father, highly-favoured and accepted in Christ, the Beloved.  That will never change, no matter what our station in life is.  Amen?