Your identity is safe in God

I did a stupid thing last week, and I have been kicking myself for it ever since. I was in the middle of a project (and therefore much preoccupied) when I got a message through Facebook Messenger from a person in my congregation. The message was, “What is your phone number?” I sent it back to them quickly. A minute later came a request to help them get back into their Facebook account by being one of three people to verify their identity. I messaged back, “Sure.” Then I got a code texted to me, and the church person asked, “Did you get the code?” I sent it to them. Yeah, I know. Stupid!

It was that quick, and about ten seconds after I sent the code, I realized my mistake. I had just given someone access to my Facebook account, who then quickly changed the email and password, effectively locking me out of my own profile. What followed was a flurry of activity on my part following Facebook directions for when you are hacked. For several hours, I tried unsuccessfully to get control of my account through the Facebook instructions. I am old school, so of course my next instinct was to try to find a support number to talk to an actual person. I could not find a number, and when I googled it, what popped up were stories about how Facebook does not have such a number, though there are plenty of con artists impersonating Facebook who want you to call them so they can scam you again. As for Facebook itself and the directions it provides, the solutions didn’t work, and because of my repeated attempts to fix the situation, I got automated messages saying something about abusing their community standards. In effect, Facebook now sees me as a threat to be neutralized. As of the writing of this article, the issue is still unresolved.

I’ve known people who’ve been scammed, and it was always tempting for me to judge them. How could they be so stupid? Now, to my chagrin and embarrassment, I have joined the legion. As a pastor, I’ve known people in my church who have been scammed out of hundreds and thousands of dollars, usually elderly people, but not always. Some have given out their bank information. Some believed they were helping a granddaughter stranded in a foreign country, and they believed this because someone who had them on the phone sounded exactly like their granddaughter. Some have spent years trying to fix identity theft issues trying to convince everyone from lenders, car dealers, and the government that they are who they say they are, and that a malicious person has taken over their identity. What a mess! So let me state the obvious: I will never solicit anyone for money through social media for any reason. If it looks like I am, you are dealing with the person (I believe in Nairobi, but who knows?) who is impersonating me online.

This whole vexing affair reminds me that there is a cosmic hacker out there who is pretty good at identity theft. Call him what you will, Beelzebub, the Devil, Satan, the Accuser, he is the one who tricked Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and has been tricking humanity ever since. Sometimes his voice is in our heads, and he tells us lies about ourselves:

*You’ll never amount to anything.

*No one loves you.

*You are too far gone.

*God could never forgive you for what you’ve done.

*You’re a big failure.

*There’s no hope for you.

The devil can trick those who believe in God and belong to God almost as easily as those who don’t. The Apostle Peter describes him like this: “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (I Peter 5:8) If you listen to the lies of your enemy more than listening to the voice of God, you begin to believe the lies about yourself. Your identity is stolen from you, and the worst thing about it is that you don’t even realize it is happening.

When you put your faith in God by trusting in his grace and asking for his forgiveness and mercy, it can be a game-changer in how you understand who you are – how you perceive your own identity. The moment that you put your faith in the salvation of Jesus Christ and receive him into your life, you become a child of God. The Gospel of John says, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (1:12-13) This is a powerful idea when it sinks in: the God who created the universe becomes your loving Father. If that is true, you fall under his protection and his provision. He loves you and cares for you. He has the ability to save you from the brokenness you are experiencing right now, and he can save you for an eternity beyond time. There is nothing that the devil can do about that because God is God and the devil is nothing in comparison. The devil can try to hack his way into your self-understanding, but if you stay centered on listening to the voice of God in prayer, God’s voice drowns out the pathetic voice of your accuser. Once you put your faith in God, your identity is safe in God. The voice of the devil fades, and the negative voices of the people around you fade as well. You begin to believe what is true: you are God’s child, and no hacker can ever change that.

Derek Russell is pastor of the Hillsboro Global Methodist Church. He loves Jesus, family, dogs and football.