This week we looked at what it means to have a new identity in Christ — not just a new set of behaviours, but a new name, a new nature, a new foundation to stand on. Michael Franzese walked away from the Colombo crime family and found that God's covenant runs deeper than any blood oath. Jacob wrestled through the night and limped away with a new name he spent the rest of his life growing into. The woman at the well came for water and left knowing who she was. And a former yakuza member in Japan read the Bible in his prison cell and discovered that forgiveness could reach someone with tattoos up both arms and a criminal record that followed him everywhere.

What all of these stories share is that the new identity did not arrive because the person cleaned themselves up first. It arrived in the middle of the mess — in prison, at a noon well, in a nighttime wrestling match, in a solitary confinement cell. God does not wait for the old things to pass away before He declares someone new. He declares it, and then the old things begin to fall away in response. The new creation is not the destination at the end of a long improvement project. It is the starting point. You are new. Now walk like it.

On this Sabbath, rest in the identity you have been given. Not the one the world assigned. Not the one your past built. The one God spoke over you when He called you by name and said you are Mine. That is the most permanent thing about you. Everything else is temporary. This is not.

"When one is truly converted, a new life begins. The soul is filled with a sense of the love of God, and desires to do His will. The converted soul has new motives, a new standard of character. Old habits and old associations lose their power. A new life, a new purpose, a new love." (Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, p. 219)

Prayer: Father, thank You for the name You have given us — child of God, new creation, Yours. Where we have been living as though the old identity still rules, remind us what You have declared. On this Sabbath we rest in who You say we are. That is enough. Amen.