{"id":14318,"date":"2007-07-30T13:58:18","date_gmt":"2007-07-30T13:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2007\/07\/30\/day19\/"},"modified":"2007-07-30T13:58:18","modified_gmt":"2007-07-30T13:58:18","slug":"day19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/day19\/","title":{"rendered":"True Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

My soul finds rest in God alone;<\/em><\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

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my salvation comes from him.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

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He alone is my rock and my salvation;<\/em><\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

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he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. … <\/em><\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;<\/em><\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

my hope comes from him<\/em><\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

He alone is my rock and my salvation;<\/em><\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

My salvation and my honor depend on God,<\/em><\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

he is my mighty rock, my refuge.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Character Check<\/strong>\nIs my identity what I do?<\/p>\n\n

In Business Terms<\/strong>\nIf you’re a banker, and you go to work today and your bank has just merged with another and they don’t need you anymore, your identity has just been taken away from you without any say.<\/p>\n\n

If your identity is being a husband, and your wife just fell in love with her tennis instructor and lets you know that she wants half and she’s out the door, your identity is gone.<\/p>\n\n

The question of who you are is one of those profound questions that even successful people have not necessarily answered. In fact, their discovery of identity is complicated by their success. The more successful you are in your field, the more you tend to be niched in most people’s thinking.<\/p>\n\n

I had a serious auto accident, and when neurologists looked at me, they said, “You’re going to be fine. We just don’t know whether you’re going to have your mental edge and your memory.”<\/p>\n\n

I said, “Can I tell you what I do for a living? I stand for an hour in front of people every weekend trying to convince them that I’m one step ahead of them on the most important issues of life, and I do it from memory!”<\/p>\n\n

What I had to deal with was, “Do I find my identity at work, or do I bring my identity to work?”<\/p>\n\n

—Bob Shank<\/p>\n\n

Something to Think About<\/strong>\nNot only do we know God through Jesus Christ, we only know ourselves through Jesus Christ.\n– Blaise Pascal<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. … Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[958],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[154],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[156],"tax_ctp_tags":[3430,3535,3559,4067,4264,4688,4699,5023,5046,5293],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-14318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-bob-shank","tax_publications-leadership-journal","tax_ctp_tags-application","tax_ctp_tags-busyness","tax_ctp_tags-character","tax_ctp_tags-god","tax_ctp_tags-integrity","tax_ctp_tags-preaching","tax_ctp_tags-presence-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-soul","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-formation","tax_ctp_tags-work"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"\nTrue 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