In psychological terms, your identity consists of your internalized individual sense of self formed from a merger of your physical and soulish interpersonal characteristics with your sense of self-esteem and social station in the world. A person with a healthy sense of identity has successfully integrated these elements into a fulfilling, blended whole that answers important personal questions like “Who am I?” and “Where do I belong?”
Your identity can be false, however, in whole or in part, depending on the degree to which you may have deceived others or even been deceived yourself by a distorted personal history, misrepresentation, self-delusion, abuse, and a host of other means. For example, many of the negative and destructive things we are taught and come to believe about ourselves in childhood and then incorporate into our adult identities later prove to be completely false.
Nothing will be more important in determining your ultimate destiny, however, than your character because your character is what you really are. Your character is the true aggregate of your most deeply ingrained, personal moral qualities developed over the course of your lifetime.
Unlike your identity, your character is the nearly permanent behavioral shape you have created and assumed for yourself as the sum total of all of the formative choices that you have ever made, whether knowingly or unknowingly, carefully or carelessly, across the entire range of life situations that you have ever encountered or experienced.
Your character is your own personal, unique collection of behavioral default settings, the well-established set of personal habits and traits that quite reliably predicts the way that you can be expected to behave and act in situations requiring moral discernment, judgment and restraint. And because your character is what you really are, it determines how you react and what you do in your unguarded moments.
This means that sooner or later, the true content of your character will be revealed by your actions regardless of how hard you may try to hide it from others. Under the right circumstances, with the right amount of temptation or pressure, whatever you have stored up in your character will spew forth in your words and actions just like toothpaste being squeezed from a tube—and once the toothpaste is out, there’s no putting it back.
God says in His Word the Bible that the key to forming godly, righteous character that is pleasing and acceptable to Him is wisdom, and true wisdom begins with due regard for God and His holiness and understanding the need to know and be in relationship with Him. Proverbs 4:7 exhorts the reader, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding,” while Proverbs 9:10 says that, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
God is keenly interested in your character development and is earnestly trying to get your attention and work with you concerning it. This is because He knows that unless your character conforms to His own in perfect holiness and righteousness as provided for us by His Son Jesus, at the end of your life there will be no place for you in His eternal kingdom and you will be tossed out of His presence onto the scrap heap of humanity forever.
A wise person understands this, fears God on account of it, and lives his life accordingly by paying attention to his character development. This means cooperating with God in the process of developing and refining godly character and being careful to safeguard his character from being degraded by sin and unholiness.
The wisdom of fearing the Lord, fleeing from evil and pursuing godly, righteous character is confirmed by Job 28:28 which says that, “…Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.” Proverbs 16:6 further confirms that, “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.” Matthew 6:33 further admonishes us to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of [the necessities of life] will be added to you” meaning taken care of or provided for us.
Before God, your character is of paramount importance. Since you can’t possibly keep His Laws to perfection and establish your own righteousness with Him, you must surrender to Him through faith in His Son Jesus and let Him make you into the person you really need to be so that you are sure to get where you really want to go.
Do You Want to Be Made Well? 