It has almost become a cliche to hear people say they’re seeking to know “who they are.” This lack of identity and purpose is real when we do not have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. If you don’t know God has created you, you are important to him, and your life has significance in his sight, then it’s easy to see why you would be searching for a meaningful identity.

However, I see that same search in the lives of many Christians. Indeed, there were some years in my life that were consumed with a desire to find myself and know myself. If it is true that our union with Christ brings meaning and purpose into our lives, why are so many Christians still looking for meaning?

Here are my thoughts. I believe the humanistic philosophy of self-focus has penetrated our Christian teaching and caused us to look at ourselves and to ourselves for answers; caused us to leave biblical principles and follow human psychological theories to find this meaning and purpose; caused us to place far too much emphasis on the self-issues of the day.

You can see how this could happen, because certainly the gospel is the good news that each individual is important to God; therefore, teachings which magnify the individual can easily be mistaken to have some biblical basis. There is a distinct line between the value of individuals and the magnification of self.

The “self” issues of today’s philosophy are very alluring. But when we are consumed with self, camouflaged as it might be by words which sound good to our ears, we are trapped into a self-focus, which can be very confusing as well as damaging. Friends, you won’t find a self-focus taught in Scripture. The only hyphenated self-word I’ve found in any Bible translation is self-control, which is quite different from self-love, self-confidence, self-actualization, etc.

Our identity is not found in making ourselves feel better about ourselves. The knowledge and esteem we need for ourselves come as by-products of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives. There is abundant evidence all around us that self-magnification hasn’t worked.