“But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your ancestors, as it is today.” – Deuteronomy 8:18
If we are going to understand our identity and who we are, we must first understand who we are NOT. Don’t let the world fool you. This world will try to tell you who you are constantly. It will tell you that you belong to this group, or you don’t belong to that group.
The world is always trying to convince us of who we are and who we are not. But it is important to understand what God says about who we are. Deuteronomy 8:18 says, “But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your ancestors, as it is today.”
My friend, you are NOT your talent or what you are good at. The reality is, every skill, talent, ability, and gift you have comes from God. This verse reminds us to remember who it is that gave us the ability to do these things.
It doesn’t matter if your gifts and talents make you $1,000 or $1,000,000. They still come from God. He is the one who has blessed you and given you all that you have. Believers are often a lot quicker to acknowledge God for the material things they have, but slower to thank Him for the internal gifts He has given them.
When we hear others appreciate and hype us up for the things we are good at, we can begin to associate those things with our identity. When we get asked the question, “Who are you?” We can respond, “Oh, I am an athlete, I play basketball for the school,” or, “Oh, I’m the valedictorian going to Yale in the fall.”
But God says “Remember the Lord your God, for it is HE who GIVES YOU the ability…” You are not your talents. You are not your skills. You are not your gifts. Those are great things, but they don’t define who you are.
Instead, thank God for blessing you in the ways He has, and remember you aren’t a sum of those blessings, but you belong to the one who has blessed you!