You Are...
The Freedom Of You Are
"This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." Matthew 3:17
The First Voice...
Have you ever noticed what happened before Jesus ever began His ministry?
Before He preached.
Before He healed.
Before He performed a single miracle.
His Father spoke.
"This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."
Jesus had done nothing to earn those words. His identity wasn't established by His performance. It was established by His Father's love.
Everything Jesus did flowed from what His Father had already declared.
The Second Voice...
The very next chapter opens in the wilderness.
The first words out of the deceiver's mouth were not about hunger or bread.
They were about identity.
"If you are the Son of God..."
The strategy is clear.
The Father says, "You are."
The deceiver says, "If you are..."
One speaks from love.
The other demands proof.
That strategy has never changed.
If the deceiver tried to move Jesus from living as the beloved Son to proving He was the beloved Son, he will use that same strategy with us.
Coming Home
Whenever I find myself becoming anxious, driven, or emotionally tangled up inside, I've learned to pause and ask two simple questions.
What am I trying to prove?
Who am I trying to prove it to?
Those questions usually uncover something deeper than the circumstances I'm facing.
More often than not, I've drifted away from living as a beloved son and quietly slipped back into trying to prove that I am one.
My Father has never asked me to prove what He has already declared.
Living From "You Are"
Near the end of His earthly ministry, Jesus prayed that the very love the Father has for Him would be in us, and that He Himself would live in us (John 17:26).
The Father doesn't love us with a lesser love.
The very love He has always had for His Son is now our home in Christ.
That isn't a promise we're trying to earn.
It is the life we've already been invited to share.
The Father's voice has already settled the question.
"You are My beloved."
Everything else is simply learning to live from what He has already said.
Reflection
What am I trying to prove?
Who am I trying to prove it to?
How would today look different if I lived from the Father's "You are..." instead of the deceiver's "If you are..."?
Prayer
Abba Father, thank You that my identity is forever settled in Your love. Teach me to live today from what You have already spoken. Amen.