Who We Say He Is

“‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’” Matthew 15:18

If this were a movie line, we would hear the music swelling in the background and see the tension in Peter’s face when Jesus softly asked him this question.  It was the 64-million-dollar question back then and it still is today.  If Jesus would have asked me this question before 2006 I would have told Him that He was the One who died for me.  I would have declared to Him that He is God’s Son without a shadow of a doubt.  I would have proclaimed that He was before time and in all things created.  But if He asked me today that same question my answers would be completely different.  My old answers were the foundation blocks on which I have built my new answers. 

This morning, I say that ‘You are the One who can move my mountain.  You are the One who is taller than my valley.  You are the One who has rescued me from my fire.  You are more than enough when nothing I do is enough.  You are the One who tells me I am loved when my flesh tells me otherwise.  You make me secure in my seasons of insecurity, and you are the One who tells me my value.  That is who I say You are and You are who You claim to be. 

I am grateful that He still asks this question today of me and of you.  When we answer this question in our prayers we build a prelude to our petitions.  Before we ask for anything, we tell Him that He is our everything.  He is the provision to our need for work…He is the deliverer of our deepest dreams…He is our healer when it comes to our marriages…He is our protector when it comes to our children.  That is who Jesus is and He will never quit asking ‘What about us?  Who do we tell others He is?’ 

“For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45b