discover your identity in Christ

Who am I? Why am I here? What was God thinking when He created me? And how many more questions can you think of?  You know, those questions that pop into your head at the strangest and most inconvenient times. Those questions that plague us at night, when for whatever reason, we can’t sleep. Those questions that seem to hit hardest when we’re going through our darkest moments—when the evil one tries to convince us that his lies are the truth by which we must abide.

On AUG 23, the movie OVERCOMER releases in theaters. The movie comes from the folk behind such films as War Room, Fireproof, Courageous, and other faith-based films. The Kendrick brothers have several books and resources based on the movie Overcomer. Defined: Who God Says You Are (B&H Publishing, 2019) is one of them.

The book doesn’t tell the story of the movie—the promotional material says that it is “inspired by the movie”. What it does is ask to reflect on those difficult questions that plague us all. This book helps us to discover our identity: not based on what we think of ourselves, not based on whatever label that family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, classmates or anyone else tries to pin on us. The main point of this book is that our true identity comes from who God says we are. God created us in His image, and He gets to decide who we are.

The several parts of the book help us look at our identity, along with its confusion and source. Then we move on to the intentionality of how our stories begin: uniquely designed, and made in God's image, among other things.  Part 2 talks about our identity in terms of who we are in Christ: beloved, blessed, saved, prized, and gifted. Then the authors take us on a journey to find our inheritance: what we have in Christ. Part 4 looks at imperatives—those things that as Christians we are supposed to be doing. And yes, that includes loving one another. And then the last section talks about how we stand strong, even, and especially during attacks.

At the end of each chapter are several passages of scripture for the reader to study and ponder over. And the book includes a series of questions for each chapter. The questions can be used as small group discussion starters, but are also helpful for individuals.

Throughout the book there are personal stories from the authors that help to clarify the points they are trying to make.

I’m leading a Bible study now on Ephesians, looking at who wee are in Christ, and many of the things that stood out in this book are things we’ve already talked about in the study, or things I highlighted for future sessions.

At times the book is a little ‘dry’, but the information is solid, and is presented in a logical manner. I’m using the book as an additional resource for the bible study. Sometimes what I find useful is directly related to Ephesians, sometimes the info comes from other places in scripture, but helps clarify what we’re talking about in the book of Ephesians.

As a member of the Publisher’s bloggers’ program, I received a copy of this book. In exchange for the book, I was requested to write a review. I was not required to write a positive review.