What do you want to be when you grow up?” was always the question. Adults would always ask it. As a kid, I would quietly wonder about it. When you’re young, there’s so much mystery surrounding your future. What will I do when I’m all grown up? Who will I become?
As followers of Jesus, these questions still ring true. Who will be when we’re all grown up? When the Father is finished with us, when the Spirit fully has His way within us, when we’re conformed to the image of the beloved Son, what will we do and who will we be?
If you know who you’ll one day be, it helps you know how to act in the here and now. That’s exactly what the Apostle Paul has in mind when he writes, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (Ephesians 4:1). If we’ve placed our trust in the finished work of Jesus, we are called God’s children by grace. That’s our calling. We are sons and daughters of God. And that new identity means a new way of living. Sons and daughters of God act in a certain way. Instead of fooling around like the rebellious orphans we once were, we are learning to walk in the newness of life that fits with our new calling and identity. Behavior flows from being; and behavior shapes our becoming. Paul is calling us to live out of our new identity in Christ as we become all we’re meant to be in Him. He’s calling us to act like the glorious sons and daughters of God we already are by grace, and will one day fully become in glory.
Remember who you are by grace. Remember who you are becoming in glory. And remember to act like yourself.
Because you are loved, more than you know!
