I AM

The shortest complete sentence in the English language is “I AM.” While Moses tended his father-in-law’s flocks in the desert at the base of Mount Horeb, he stumbled upon a burning bush. The bush caught his attention because, although it burned, it did not burn up. Suddenly God’s voice came out of the bush and told Moses to return to Egypt and lead the Israelites out of slavery. Moses challenged the voice, saying, “Who shall I tell them sent me?” God replied, “I AM WHO I AM.”

God needs no definition, no justification, no explanation. He simply is.

“Why do we define ourselves by our circumstances or by what we do for a living?” asks life coach Judy Kelly. I am a housewife, we say. I am a student. I am a father. I am an engineer. I am a doctor. “As Christians, our identity is Child of God,” Kelly says. “All children of God are given gifts, or talents, which can be used to fulfill different roles.” Paul describes these roles as parts of the body of Christ. We are placed in certain roles—son, daughter, brother, sister—and we choose others—student, wife, mother, business owner, church secretary, etc. “Our roles are to be used simply to express our talents, not define who we are,” Kelly says. When we use them to define who we are, we inevitably set unreachable standards that we think we have to achieve in order to be valuable.

But the I AM says you are valuable not for what you do, but simply because YOU ARE—just because He made you.

Key Bible Texts

For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; (Romans 12:4-6 KJV)