In this study guide, we’ll kick off a special, three-week study called Made for This, where we’ll discover who we were made to be, where true belonging is found, and the purpose God created us for. In part one, we’ll explore the topic of identity.

TALK IT OUT

Below, you’ll find some key discussion points to reflect on and questions to discuss in your small group, with your family, or in your circle of friends, as well as some action points for the week.

Memory Verse of the Week: Ephesians 1:4–5 (NLT)

“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.”

Getting the Conversation Going: Who am I? Why am I here? What’s the meaning of life? Where do I belong? What’s my purpose? If you’ve ever pondered big questions like these . . . you’re not alone. Everyone around you, at some point or another, has wondered the very same things and sought the very same answers. Why? Because deep down we all feel as though there is more to life, that we were made for more. So then, the biggest question then becomes, “Where do you look to find the answers?”

Sadly, according to Barna Research, 91% of Americans believe that in order to find yourself, you must look within. Where did this idea that truth is found inside the self come from? Who knows . . . Maybe it was from fairy tales and Disney movies, maybe it’s a uniquely American ideology of being “self-made.” Wherever it came from, it’s entirely contrary to the ideology held throughout the world for almost all of human history that truth is outside the self, bigger than the self, and absolute.

It’s also completely contrary to biblical wisdom, which warns us that “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 NIV) and “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person” (Mark 7:20–23 NIV).

So, if it’s not inside us that we must look, and it’s not in the fluid, ever-changing, cultural landscape, where do we find who we are and who we were made to be?

Discussion Question 1: Why is it dangerous to look for truth within yourself and based on your feelings? What about in culture?   

Where Identity Comes From: Genesis 1:26 tells us that God made us in His image and likeness, while Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV) says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.”

Let’s look also at these passages from Psalms:

• Psalm 100:3 (NIV): “It is he who made us, and we are his.”
• Psalm 119:73 (NIV): “Your hands made me and formed me.”
• Psalm 139:13 (NIV): “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

God created us, designed us, and knit us together from the innermost to the outermost part of us. God knows us more deeply, intimately, and completely—more than we know ourselves. If anyone is qualified and has the right to shape our identity and reveal who we truly are, it’s God.

So, what can we learn about our identity from Scripture?

• We are who God made us to be. 
• Our worth has already been proven.
• We are recipients of grace.
• We were made for community.
• We can change.

Discussion Question 2: Why is God the only One qualified and entitled to give us our identity?

Discussion Question 3: What are some labels you’ve carried around? How have they shaped your identity?

Who Are You? What is our God-given identity when we receive Jesus? Here are just a few passages that tell us who we were made to be!

• 1 John 1:9 says we’re forgiven and pure.
• 1 Peter 2:9 says we’re chosen, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for His own possession.
• Deuteronomy 14:2 says we’re His treasured possession.
• Ephesians 2:10 calls us His masterpiece.
• 2 Corinthians 5:21 says we’re righteous.
• Isaiah 43:4 calls us precious.
• Matthew 5:13–16 says we’re salt, light, and a city on a hill.
• John 3:16 says we’re loved.
• John 8:36 says we’re free.
• John 15:5 says we’re His family.
• John 15:15 says we’re His friends.
• Romans 3:24 says we’re justified.
• Romans 8:17 says we’re heirs and coheirs with Christ!
• Romans 8:37 says we’re more than conquerors.
• 1 Corinthians 3:16 tells us we’re God’s temple.
• 2 Corinthians 1:22 tells us we’re secure.
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 says we’re a new creation.
• 2 Corinthians 5:20 says we’re God’s ambassadors.
• Ephesians 1 says we’re blessed, chosen, adopted, redeemed, grace-lavished, unconditionally loved, accepted, and blameless.
• Philippians 3:20 tells us we’re citizens of heaven.
• John 1:12 and Galatians 3:26 says we’re children of God.

Discussion Question 4: How do we walk in our true identity as those who’ve been made new in Christ?

This Week: Write out or print the list of passages above and put them somewhere where you’ll see them every day. Read them, remind yourself of them, and thank God that this is who He has made you into through Christ Jesus!

A LOOK AHEAD

In our next study, we’ll discuss the idea of belonging and how true community and acceptance can only be found in the family of God!