Identity Theft

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. 1 John 3:1

It started on a Friday. A woman walked into a bank in New Jersey, handed her driver’s license to the teller, and made a withdrawal. Four days later, she was back. She met with the same teller and made another withdrawal. Two days after that, she went to a different branch and made one more withdrawal.

Just the usual bank transactions, except the woman was not who she claimed to be. She was living under my name.

This woman co-opted my identity and tried to take what did not belong to her. She used my name without permission. She accessed resources that were not hers. In essence, she attempted to turn my life into a lie. It was unsettling.

Scripture tells us something just as unsettling: there is an enemy who’d like nothing more than to live under our name–stealing our identity.

The enemy claims authority he doesn’t have. He uses our name to make false transactions, leaving us to deal with the consequences. His fraud shows up in unauthorized withdrawals of peace, and joy, and in counterfeit deposits of anxiety and fear. He mars our “credit report” with labels like–failure, unworthy, forgotten, unforgiven, a burden, useless.

He assigns debts we do not owe and compounds them with interest in the form of guilt, and shame, and hopelessness. And we in turn live weighed down by charges we forget have already been paid in full.

Scripture tells us something else.

We have an identity that cannot be stolen.

We have a name that cannot be falsified: Child of God.

Our identity is in Christ and it is not fragile.

It is not suspect.

It is sealed by the blood of Christ.

And kept secure by the Holy Spirit.

So, as we move into 2026, let’s stop paying for what grace has already covered. Let’s reject labels that Christ never assigned and contradict what God has declared.

Let’s stop authorizing the withdrawals of joy, peace, hope, and love that Christ has already deposited in full.

And let’s walk forward, rooted in our true identity, not as frauds or debtors, but as beloved children, known, claimed, and secure–proclaiming the excellencies of the One who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.