Recover Your Identity as a Child of GodSample

Dignity 

We are to the likeness of God because we live in His dignity. We bear the fruit of freedom. We grow in knowledge because we live in integrity.

Dignity is to recognize the image of God in our lives. It is to recognize and understand that we are the image of God. It is a concept lost in the Garden of Eden. When we lose that concept, we begin to live with fear. 

God made me in His image and has dignified me. How would you feel if He had made us in the image of an animal? Would you feel dignified? That idea does not bring me dignity nor pride. We are the image of God, which brings dignity, value, and meaning into our lives. 

We cannot live by what others say we are. When we understand and live in the image of God, there is no place for trauma in our lives, because we understand we are what He says of us; we are not what someone wanted to do with us, or what they said we were when we were children. Therefore, we now walk and live in this dignity we possess. 

When we have dignity, we do not allow other people to take control of our lives. When we have no dignity, we hand over control of who we are and our emotions to other people. We create codependency and are controlled by other people because we gave them control over our lives. We should not let other people hurt us. When we recognize that we are the image of God, we reduce our ability to get hurt by controlling people. 

To live in God’s dignity determines the state of our soul. Our soul will not be dismayed because of other people’s actions. 

When we do not have God’s dignity, we only have excuses to blame other people for our problems and for the way we behave. In the Garden of Eden, Adam said, “The woman you gave me.” He found the perfect excuse for his actions because he lost his identity in the image of God. His accusation is evidence of his loss. He blamed the woman and God for his own actions.

When I have God’s dignity, I know who I am in Him; every excuse loses power and I begin to take responsibility for my actions. This is one of the core values in recovering our identity as God’s children.