Imago Dei
A Devotional for Small Group Leaders — May 2026
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you." Jeremiah 1:5
With Pentecost Sunday landing on the 24th, Pastor Rod set the theme for May as Pentecost — and I normally follow Pastor Rod's themes for our monthly devotional. However, Wednesday night Pastor Chris preached on "Mislabeled" and if you missed it, I encourage you to go find it on the Cooper City Church of God YouTube channel. I felt it was an on time word, partly because I'm in a course right now where one of the topics is your identity in Christ. Between that message and what I've been chewing on, it just felt like this was the word for us this month.
So we're talking about identity. Who you are, and who God actually designed you to be.
Imago Dei
Before anyone tried to convince you of your identity, God already put a label on you. Imago Dei — Latin for the image of God. You didn't earn it and you can't lose it. It was pressed into you before you ever took your first breath.
Wednesday night Pastor Chris made this statement — the first temptation wasn't about bread, it was about identity. Satan said "If you are the Son of God, turn these stones to bread." He wasn't just trying to get Jesus to perform a miracle — he was trying to get Jesus to prove something He already was. When you don't know who you are, you become vulnerable to anyone who offers you a definition of who they think you should be. You end up spending your life performing for an identity you already possess or one that actually isn't yours at all. The enemy hasn't changed his strategy — he is still coming after identity first. He doesn't primarily come after what you do, He comes after who you are — because when you know who you are, everything changes. You stop performing for a seat at the table and start walking like someone who was already seated. You stop being a conditioned participant and start moving in your orchestrated designation — showing up because that's what you were made for.
You Are Not Your Assignment
Someone put it this way — another person can be given an assignment that you refused, but you have a destiny, no one can take your place. It can only be filled by you.
An assignment can be handed off, or reassigned, but your destiny is a space God designed specifically for you — and you are the only one authorized to occupy it. Not invited. Not suggested. Authorized. God didn't create a role and then look for someone to fill it. He created you and then built the role around you.
That changes things. Because it says your identity is not tied to your occupation — it is tied to your destiny. It is yours. No one else can do it. You are irreplaceable.
Moses tried to convince God to send someone else to lead His people out of Egypt. For every excuse Moses gave why he couldn't, God gave a reason why he could. Gideon also tried to convince God He had the wrong person. But in the end they both discovered the same truth — God doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called. And when you add God to your yes, the combination is invincible.
The question was never whether you were qualified. The question is whether you are willing to walk in who God already said you are.
For Your Group This Week
Is who you are today the same as who God designed you to be?
What labels have you been carrying that God never put on you?
What would it look like to lead from identity instead of assignment?
"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." *Ephesians 2:10
You were not an afterthought. You were not a backup plan. Before the foundations of the earth, God had you in mind — named clearly, formed carefully, and placed on purpose. Your space was not posted for applications. It was prepared for you. Walk in that truth.
Pastor Kurtis Allen