So God created man in His own image;  He created him in the image of God;  He created them male and female.  Genesis 1:27 HCSB

Have you ever had your identity stolen? On two occasions someone has accessed my debit card.  The first time they were able to charge around 250.00 before I found out and the second time they charged over 350.00.  A couple months ago, I was notified that someone in another state had logged in to Netflix using my login information.  I changed my password.  Just last week I got another notification from Netflix and changed my password again. With the bank, it took a week to ten days to get my money back.  It’s become so common place that the banks and law enforcement don’t even put any effort into trying to determine who hacked into your account. The first time someone hacked into my checking account they were making charges on Amazon in Canada.  I never shop Amazon Canada and I rarely use my debit card for Amazon purchases.  The second time someone was purchasing gas at a truck stop in Ohio.  I have never been to Ohio.  Even though this happened miles away, it still hits close to home.  You still feel violated.  Someone has tapped into information that was supposed to be secure and is able to take money from your account.  It’s not a good feeling.

Now with the rapid advances in technology, identity theft will probably become more and more common.  There are things we can do to safeguard against this such as frequently changing passwords, never using the same password for more than one account, and being careful about using public unsecured wi-fi.  The last time that my debit card was compromised the employee at the bank was very helpful and gave me a little crash course in how to prevent this in the future.  Now my bank even has a feature on my account where I can lock it when it is not in use. All of these things are very helpful, but they won’t stop hackers from trying to steal your identity.  There is an identity that cannot be stolen as long as we are diligent in guarding against the theft..

John 1:12 says, But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.  If you have received Christ as your savior, then you must understand that you are a child of God.  You have been bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.  This is who you are, this is your identity.  You must also understand that the devil tries daily to steal your identity.  The devil does not want people to see you as a Christian.  The devil wants people to see you as someone who serves him and has put God aside.  As someone who has had their banking identity, their Netflix identity and their Christian identity stolen, I can tell you that it took me a lot longer to restore my Christian identity.  The reason for this is that I had no great desire to do so.  You see, when someone was taking money out of my account, I reacted quickly.  I called the bank right away and explained that I had not made these purchases.  Both times were on a weekend so they froze my account until I could get into the bank and file the necessary paperwork.  The first time I even filed a police report.  When my Netflix account was hacked into, I changed my password.  But when my Christian identity was stolen, I was oblivious.  I thought that I could live however I wanted to live and throw up a prayer every now and then, read my bible when an emergency happened, and occasionally attend church and I would be fine.  I had no idea that the devil had very craftily stolen my Christian identity.  But after a while, restoring my Christian identity became urgent.  I cried out to God and He heard and answered me.  He helped me to get the sin out of my life.  He helped me to get on the right path.

The thing about identity theft is that we usually don’t see it coming. However, if we are walking with God we can see when the devil is trying to steal our identity in Christ.  It usually begins with him tempting us to do something that we know we shouldn’t do like Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-7).  We are rolling along minding our own business when the devil starts his conniving.  He tempts us, convinces us that God didn’t really mean what we thought He meant or what our parents or our preacher said He meant.  He convinces us that there will be no consequences and that it will be good for us.  Sound familiar? And before we know it, we are trapped in sin and our Christian identity has been stolen.  People who watched us make a public profession of faith and be baptized are sitting around calling us hypocrites.  We invite people to church and they decline thinking that it hasn’t done so much for us, so why should they go?  This is why it is so important for the devil to steal your Christian identity.  He doesn’t want Christians to live as examples of Christ.  He doesn’t want Christians to witness to the lost.  He doesn’t want people to be saved, he wants them to be destroyed.

We were made in God’s image.  We were made to be imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1).  This is who we are meant to be. God blesses the obedient, but there are consequences for disobedience (Deuteronomy 28).  I beg of you today don’t let the devil steal your identity in Christ.  Don’t let him deceive you.  Turn to God, trust in Him.  Live the wonderful life that He has to offer for His children.

Have a great day!