Reputation is who people think you are.

Character is who you really are.

Opinions other people have about us are unimportant. However, if you live a quality life, most people will think well of you. The key is that we are not to live with the concern of what others think of us. Our primary goal is to live so that God thinks well of us. Our goal should be to hear the words of our Lord on the day of eternal rewards: “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”

God knows us intimately. He knows the complete truth about us. He knows our character. He knows who we really are.

There are declarations in the Scriptures clearly stating who we are in Christ by faith. We must act on those proclamations of our Christian character for them to be true in our lives. For example, the Bible tells us that Christ paid the price for our sin so that so that “in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Here is a statement of our Christian character: It is that, by faith, we really are “the righteousness of God in Christ.”

Living in that revelation of how God sees us if we have given ourselves to Him at the cross of Jesus may sometimes be injurious to our reputation. Remember, reputation is what the world thinks of us. Character is who we truly are and that identifies the true believer with Christ.

He knows us. He knows us well. He knows our name. He knows the very number of hairs on our head (indicating how intimately He knows us).

How He values us is far more important than any opinion of us the world around us may have.

The highest level of character to which we can aspire is to be like Him. And that is His ultimate desire for our character.

www.firstagcc.org. Write the Pastor at PastorBill@firstagcc.org.