Matthew 16:13-20

Carl Belcher considers the importance of knowing God, to truly know who we were created to be.

Carl Belcher

In today's modern world we grow ever more hungry for information. From the immediacy and convenience of our computers, tablets and smartphones we have an ever-increasing access to the vast array of information at our fingertips.

It is predicted that by today the total global Internet traffic will have reached a zettabyte. To put that into context, a zettabyte is roughly 1000,000,000,000 gigabytes! To place that amount of volume in more practical terms, an exabyte alone (1/1000 Zettabyte) has the capacity to hold over 36,000 years' worth of HD quality video...or stream the entire Netflix catalogue more than 3,000 times. A Zettabyte is equivalent to about 250 billion DVDs. Is your head hurting yet?!

And even though there are countless billions of questions asked on Google each year, there is one fundamental question that we all ask at some point in our lives. WHO AM I?

One of my favourite bits in the Bible is when Jesus asks his friends, the disciples, this very question:

'When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.' Matthew 16:13-20

The amazing thing about the questions that Jesus asks though is that he isn't looking to be informed. He already knows the answers! The reason he asks, is so that we get the opportunity to reflect and have the truth revealed to US.

In essence he is saying, everybody has their opinions on the big questions of life; who they are, what they are here for, who they are in relation to God, but stop...who do YOU think you are? And who do you think JESUS is?

The disciples were all able to quickly report who everyone they spoke with thought that Jesus was, but it was only when Jesus asked, "Who do you say I am?" that God broke in and revealed who HE was and in doing so revealed to Jesus' disciples who that made THEM in relation to him.

I love the fact that once Simon Peter replied to Jesus with the revelation, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God", Jesus then reveals to him who Simon Peter really is.

The truth is that before we can truly know ourselves, we need to truly know Jesus.

There are countless self-help books out there that will give convincing instructions on how to self-improve and become the person you desire to be, but unless you have first found out who God says you are and start to live out of the identity he has for you, you will never be truly set free to be who he originally created you to be...his child.

My prayer for you today is that you will never grow weary in asking God to reveal himself to you and in doing so you will grow stronger and firmer in who he has created and called you to be.

"Who do you say I am?"