You Are Not Who They Said You Were

You Are Not Who They Said You Were
By M.T. Clark — P-2034 | 08/05/2026 – Today’s Audio Podcast
Today’s Message on YouTube:

Today’s photo of a wild bank of bright orange daylilies, a little birdhouse on a post, and the white peaked gable of my former countryside home just showing among the willows and shade trees, under a blue sky full of summer clouds, comes to us from yours truly, as I captured this colorful view on Waite Road in Easton, NY, on July 4th, 2023.

Well, it’s Wednesday, and I share this photo of the peak of my former countryside home, rising over a blaze of orange daylilies, to visually represent our arrival to another midweek summit, so happy hump day, and to remind us of how faithful God is at making things new.

Here’s a fun fact about those flowers: each daylily bloom opens for a single day, and a new one opens in its place the next morning — that’s how they got their name. Their stalks (called scapes) carry multiple buds, so new flowers replace the old ones daily.

Similarly, when you are a child of God, each day there is new beauty and new mercy, morning after morning, because God is faithful. And the newest, best thing God makes isn’t a flower. It’s the transforming Christian disciple, the follower who is blooming into the person God made them to be, the person who is continually made new through their faith in Jesus Christ.  

Speaking of being made new,

Our series, “Win the Morning, Renew Your Mind,” continues today with the question of whose voice gets to tell you who you are.

You Are Not Who They Said You Were

Every morning you wake up carrying an identity, whether you chose it or not, and the whole direction of your day follows it. That is why Paul’s words in Second Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) are not a nice sentiment but a foundation to stand on: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Consider how our identity forms. Somewhere back in your history, someone handed you a name for yourself. Maybe it was a parent’s frustration, a teacher’s label, a failure that seemed to define you, or a wound that whispered a verdict. If those things got repeated often enough, they eventually stopped feeling like an opinion and started feeling like the plain truth about you. That is how the mind works.

Tell yourself a story about who you are long enough, and you begin to believe it, expect it, defend it, and live it out. The enemy knows this better than any psychologist. His strategy is not just to get you to do bad things. It is to get you to believe a lie about who you are, because he knows that a person will always drift back to live in agreement with their identity.

That is exactly why Paul does not begin the Christian life with a list of behaviors. He begins with an announcement about who you are now. If you are in Christ, you are not an improved version of the old self. You are a new creation. The old things have passed away. All things, including you, have become new.

The identity that was formed by the addictions, the abuse, and the failures of the past that tried to define you and tell you who you are was crucified with Christ, and a whole new life was raised when you put your faith in Him. This isn’t just you thinking more positively about yourself. This is God telling you the truth about the person He has made you to be.

Now here is where we have to be honest, because you can be a new creation and still wake up hearing your old name. Our old fleshly patterns, the lies we believe, and the enemy don’t surrender their territory just because the truth has moved in. They keep whispering the old verdict – guilty – especially first thing in the morning, before your defenses are up, and when your mind is still soft and open to suggestions. The accuser knows this and wants to defeat you before your day has even started. You wake and the “old identity” is already talking, telling you: “You’re still the same. Nothing has really changed. This is just who you are.” And if that is the first voice you agree with, you will spend the whole day mired in it.

So, the morning becomes the place where the question of your identity is settled again. This is not about pretending. It is about which true thing you choose to stand on. The lie feels true because it is familiar and old. The truth is true because God said it. And the renewing of the mind is the daily, deliberate work of answering the old name with the new one — out loud if you have to.

When the world, the flesh, and the devil say you are what you were, you answer with Scripture: “I am a new creation in Christ; the old has passed away.”

You are not arguing with the enemy on his terms. You are agreeing with what God has said about you.

I know how heavy an old identity can be, because I carried a few of them for years. There was a long stretch of my life where I was sure of who I was, and none of it was good, and the shame of it followed me around like a name tag I couldn’t take off.

What changed was not that I finally cleaned myself up enough to earn a new name. What changed is that God found me and told me who I actually am, because of Him, and slowly, as that truth got renewed in my mind morning after morning, I stopped answering to my old name.

The old man did not get rehabilitated. He got replaced.  I did this literally in my life as I decided that I wanted my identity as a Christian to take center stage. I became more and more transformed by the renewing of my mind and grew in my freedom in Christ; I felt I needed a new name. My old names, Marc, or my fraternity nickname, Tugboat,  just wouldn’t do anymore. That guy, or those guys, were not who I was anymore. In effect, they had died, and my new life in Christ needed a new name.

So, I started thinking about who I was after the Lord saved me and who I wanted to be. I realized that my initials M.T. (Marc Thomas) sounded like “empty,” and so I became M.T. because I wanted to be a vessel used by the Lord. I wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit and walk by faith every day of my life. So, I became M.T. Clark in my mind, and when I started my blog, MT4Christ.org, in 2015, I signed the first post, which was entitled “Empty for Christ”, by my new name. We are new creations in Christ, and there is power in declaring the truth of what God has done for you.

Whatever the world, the flesh, the devil, your family, or friends told you that you were, it does not get the final word anymore. The final word was spoken by God over you when He made you new in Christ.

So this morning, before the old name can settle in, remember who you actually are. You are forgiven, you are God’s adopted son or daughter, and you are a new creation in Christ. Live today as the person He has already made you to be. Every step we take toward the Lord is a step in the right direction.

Keep on walking and talking with God.

— M.T.

*******************************

Check out our past Podcast series or teachings via The MT4Christ247 podcast playlists on YouTube at MT4Christ.com!

The MT4Christ247 audio podcast is available on YouTube, Apple, Amazon, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Podbean, Audible, and many more podcast platforms!

Subscribe to The MT4Christ247 Channel on YouTube!

Email me at m.t.clark@mt4christ.com with any questions, comments, or to inquire about our Christian Life Coaching or Prayer Ministry Services.

“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

Support MT 4 Christ Community Freedom Ministry!

To give via PayPal, go to the MT4Christ Donations Page

Or Give Via Venmo or the Cash App by scanning the QR Code below: