Some mornings, everything seems to go wrong. Little things seem like big things and the stress adds up to a less than great start to the day.

Yet they add up to a much needed reminder. My identity isn’t placed in what I wear, how I feel, or whether I make a mistake. When I place my identity in these things, my day becomes about me, and not about Christ. I put myself down and end up being unproductive and inefficient for the day.

But when I put my identity in Christ, He picks me back up and gets me back on course for the day. For in Christ we have a purpose, “…so that we, who were first to set our hope on Christ, might be to the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:12). This purpose is not our own, it does not waiver as the days change, and it is not self-serving.

In Christ, we live for His praise and not our own – and with that, we find peace, for “He is our peace” (Eph. 2:14). Reading through Ephesians, I get a clear reminder that I am firmly set in God, for He chose us (1:4).

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them,” Ephesians 2:10.

In God, we have power because He has grace. We have wisdom because He has mercy. We have life because He has love.

My challenge to you is to read through Ephesians, realign yourself with God’s love and purpose fulfilled through you, and to embrace the day as His day. For Christ commands that you: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31).

Just as Paul began his letter to Ephesus with “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” go out and greet your neighbors with grace and peace. Be Christ in this world.

Originally posted on RochesterSA.org.