I am the Lord’s, and another will call on the name of Jacob and another will write on his hand, the Lord’s, and name himself by the name of Israel.
– Isaiah 44:5
All right, today before I read this verse, I want to ask you a question. If someone were to ask you right now, who are you? Tell me about yourself. Think how you would respond. Maybe you would say, I am a man, I’m a woman, I’m a boy, I’m a girl. Maybe you would say something about your age. I’m a kid, I’m a teenager, I’m a college student. Or maybe you would say, I’m single, or I’m a husband, or I’m a wife, or I’m a mom, or I’m a dad, or I’m a son, or I’m a daughter. Or maybe you would begin to think about your job, your vocation. Maybe, yes, I’m a student, or I’m this job, or I’m that vocation, or I do this in my life. And all those things might be true.
But I want you to listen to Isaiah 44:5, now this one will say,
I am the Lord’s, and another will call on the name of Jacob and another will write on his hand, the Lord’s, and name himself by the name of Israel.
– Isaiah 44:5
Isaiah 44:5 challenges our assumptions about our identity.
Did you hear how Isaiah 44:5 describes identity? This one will say, this one’s answer to that question who are you? I am the Lord’s. That’s who I am. I am the Lord’s. Another will write on his hand. Picture it, something written on your hand that you would see all the time, every time you look down at your hand, it says the Lord’s. Lift up your hand, this is who I am. I am the Lord’s.
And I want to encourage you to find, to root, to ground your identity here above everything else. You as a follower of Jesus for all who’ve trusted in Jesus and if you’ve never put your faith in Jesus and you listen to this, I encourage you to put your faith in Jesus, trust in him to save you from your sin, to be the Lord of your life, and to be able to say so for all who trust in Jesus, this is who I am. I am the Lord’s. Because this is the unshakable, immovable, eternal everlasting ground of your identity. Jobs may come and jobs may go. Think about important relationships like husband or wife, I’m not guaranteed to be a husband tomorrow if the Lord takes my precious wife home to himself today.
Isaiah 44:5 teaches us the true foundation of our identity.
As much as we value our identity in these different ways, the foundation of our identity that is unshakable, immovable, and eternal is being the Lord’s. And I just want to encourage you today to see yourself this way above all else. Whether you write it down on your hand today is a reminder, may you know all day long that you are the Lord’s. That’s who you are. Which means you belong to him and he has taken responsibility for your care in every way you need.
God, we praise you for the privilege of belonging to you. Jesus, we praise you for making this possible for us. We deserve to be in hell right now. And here we are praying to you in relationship with you, enjoying your grace and your mercy, and your promises in our lives as your children, as those who belong to you and will belong to you forever. When we die, which could be today for any of us. That we belong to you, and we will be with you forever. We gladly say lifting our hand in the air, I am the Lord’s. So help us to live out of the overflow of this identity today.
God, we pray that you’d keep us from living out of the overflow, especially of how the world would define us, saying we’re this or that. God, help us to live according to how you define us. And even in all these other good ways in which we might define ourselves, good ways that show your grace in our lives, we pray that over and above it all, we would see ourselves as simply and gloriously belonging to you and frame our entire outlook of the life out of the overflow we pray of this identity in you.
Prayer for the Zuwarah People
And God, we pray that you would use us to lead others to this identity, to belong to you. Help us to bring others into your family today. And God, we pray for the Zuwarah people of Libya, just a few known believers among 42,000 of them in this Muslim people group.
God, we pray that those few believers, our brothers, and sisters among the Zuwarah would know this is who they are, that they belong to you, that you give them strength today and boldness to share the gospel with other Zuwarah men and women and children, that they might be reached with the gospel. That you would send laborers from your church among other people groups to help them spread the gospel among the Zuwarah. That the Zuwarah might belong to you… That more men and women and children among the Zuwarah might say, I am the Lord’s. We pray for this… All of this in light of your word in Isaiah 44:5… With joy and humble confidence and strength and life that’s found in belonging to you. In Jesus’ name, we pray, who makes all this possible, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
