In Christ

IN CHRIST

a prayer to open

Here I am, Lord. Remind me who I am.

I am loved. I am known. I belong to you.

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

The most significant piece of who we are as followers of Jesus is that we are in Christ. Many other things are true about us, as we will see on our journey through Paul’s letter. But the most fundamental of all is that we are in Christ. So often we say and hear that Christ is in us, and indeed, this is true. Far more, however, Scripture speaks of the fact that we are in Christ. In him we find our identity, our true love, our life, our freedom, our power to overcome, our ability to endure, and ultimately our eternal life. At the center of our relationship with God the Father is our identity in Christ the Son. If we could wake up every day and be reminded that we are in Christ, though we would still suffer and groan and sin, we might begin to live into the reality of who we are.

• In what kinds of things have you placed your identity—a job, money, a relationship, a position, pain, an experience? What have you allowed to define you?
• Reflect for a few moments on what it means for your actual, walking-around life that you are in Christ. In other words, how might this reality begin to shape how you are in the world?
• Take a moment to quiet yourself in God’s loving presence. Ask him to open your eyes and heart to the ways he wants you to live more fully into your fundamental identity in Christ. What did God bring to mind?

Father, I lift my hands to you! Thank you that the truest thing about me is that I am in Christ, fully and finally. I need not be defined by what I do or my past experiences or pain or sin. My identity is in Christ and sustained by him. Thank you for this life and your blessing. Help me remember that I am in your hands and have been since before I took my first breath. Keep my perspective wide, letting me see the work you are doing in me and in the world. May your praise always be on my lips. Allow me to live this day in you. Amen.