A label. Everyone has one. Some labels we are proud to have and some don’t make us as proud. A label is something that defines us and often the one word people will use to describe us.
At Passion City Church we just completed a series titled “Label Maker” and it was centered around the question, “Who or what is defining you?” The labels we often allow the world to give us are all variables. They can change, fail us and often lead to disappointment. During this series Louie focused on 5 labels:
CHOSEN. HEIR. HOLY. ALIVE. ABLE.
These are all labels that define us by our Creator and because of Him. They are constant, because He is constant. They are defining words that have no room to fail us because they are planted deep in our hearts and our existence by the unchanging Father that we worship.
Through Ephesians we see these labels and I have found so much peace through the scriptures of that book. I have experienced joy abundantly because I can rest in the fact that I am defined by nothing that this world has to offer, but only by who my Heavenly Father says I am.
I have been thinking a great deal about the label that is a banner over my life. There are many I can think of and some I will claim forever and some I am not proud of. Each of these labels, good or bad, are going to fail be in one way or another. As I continued to think about this, I realized the biggest label right now is most likely…
MISSIONARY.
Wow. Sounds like a pretty good label I thought at first. The more confident I began to feel in this label, the more convicted I began to feel. It is a label that has clearly come from the Lord and the calling He has placed on my life. Even though this is a label that is drawing people to the Lord, I am not allowed to let it be what ultimately defines who I am. If I let this word be what labels me, I will be let down. If this word labels me the hard days will defeat me instead of giving me victory because of who I am in Christ. The good days will also let me down because I will be giving myself and this label the glory instead of the One who deserves it all.
I have learned so much of what it means to not be defined by something, but rather let my Father label me as His. That is all people need to know about me and my prayer it is all they see in me. As Christians it is crucial that we are conscious of how we define ourselves and what we allowed the world to label us by. This label that is over our lives can easily be one that glorifies God, but it must never define us more than our Savior does. If we begin to worship what we do instead of the One who called us then we are getting it all wrong.
I encourage you to look at the label over your life and really dig deep into it. Is it one that points people to the cross or gives you glory? Are you worshipping your label more than the One who gave it to you?
Here is a video that have been out a couple years, but I keep coming back to it when I let my worship focus more on what I am doing than the Savior who gave me life.
claire collier. 