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    Walking Out Your Identity in Christ
    Walking Out Your Identity in Christ
    Walking Out Your Identity in Christ
    Ebook154 pages2 hours

    Walking Out Your Identity in Christ

    By Phillip Watkins

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    About this ebook

    Have you ever listened to what comes out of your mouth when someone asks you to describe yourself? The first thing you say in those situations can speak volumes about who you think you are. How we choose to identify ourselves most often can reveal our priorities in life. Since life is constantly changing, it only makes sense that priorities—and by extension some of our identities—will change along with it.

    But beyond these superficial identities, there lies an identity that affects everything about us. This identity impacts all our decisions and affects how we view ourselves and other people. This is the identity that we need to get right in our life. Unfortunately, many people struggle to get this one right, which leads to confusion, heartache, and strife with ourselves and others.

    Wrong identities can destroy us. In my own life I had developed an identity of self-sufficiency and pride that led me to believe that I had to have it all together. I thought if I didn't have it all figured out, I would be letting God, family and friends down, and I would be a failure! When you lose yourself in such a way, it can be a painful process to put yourself together again.

    In my journey, I discovered that I had completely forgotten about one important thing: who I was in Christ. I needed to find out what my Christ-given identity truly was. My search for healing involved finding the Scriptures that talked about who we are in Christ and what we have through Christ. As I studied these scriptures I began to see them as promises rather than a set of rules. I saw that God was promising me a new identity. It was a promise that I could mature in Christ and change!

    Really knowing who we are in Christ is a matter of making the day-to-day decisions that we all face, applying the Word to our lives, and following the Spirit’s guidance. There is no secret formula we can apply to magically make us like Jesus. My hope is that we will be able to grow in spiritual maturity and confidence. It is a never-ending journey, but it is an exciting one and I am thrilled to take it with you.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPhillip Watkins
    Release dateMar 19, 2017
    ISBN9781370799381
    Walking Out Your Identity in Christ
    Author

    Phillip Watkins

    Phillip Watkins is married to Sarah and they have four beautiful children. He has many interests including movies, sports, games, and reading. He is currently an avid runner and has completed multiple marathons, quite a few half-marathons, and even a few small triathlons. He feels that the principles of discipline involved in these endeavors apply equally well to every aspect of life and they have come in handy several times. Plus he likes the medals that they hand out after the big races! Phillip Watkins grew up with one younger sister. Following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, he graduated with an engineering degree, and after passing the hardest test he’s ever had to take in his life, he received his Professional Engineering license. Later, because he had the time, he graduated with an MBA. He currently works at a utility company as an engineering supervisor overseeing a team that designs substations. In 1999 he got serious about his relationship with the Lord and began his life-long journey of growing in Christ. Even though life has had its ups and downs, the Lord has been faithful to provide wisdom, strength, peace, and joy at every step of the growth process. The Lord’s love and companionship have provided a wonderful foundation of security and trust that helped him overcome insecurity and a bad self-image. You may email Phillip at ConfidentInChrist@outlook.com. Phillip and Sarah currently live in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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      Book preview

      Walking Out Your Identity in Christ - Phillip Watkins

      What Is Your Identity?

      "Nor shall your name any longer be Abram [high, exalted father]; but your name shall be Abraham [father of a multitude], for I have made you the father of many nations."

      Genesis 17:5, AMPC

      When I was a kid, I wanted to be many different things when I grew up. I don’t remember all of them specifically, but I do remember a few. The one thing that I remember most clearly, is that I wanted to be a baseball player. I enjoyed watching the game. Some of my earliest memories are of my family going to Astros games when we lived in Houston for several years. My parents tell me that I got my name on the scoreboard for my birthday and for some reason the Astros always seemed to be playing the Padres who had—in my opinion—ugly brown uniforms. Not that I should be talking much, considering that the Astros have made some interesting uniform choices themselves over the years.

      When we moved away from Houston I started playing T-ball and eventually baseball as I grew up. At various times during different baseball seasons I got to play every position at least once, and when I was in fourth or fifth grade, I actually hit a real home run. Turns out it was a grand slam and that season I happened to be in a league that gave out trophies for home runs so I got a nice one. I still have that trophy somewhere in my house today. That was the only home run I would ever hit.

      As a lot of young boys probably do, I developed a desire to play in the major leagues. I thought it would be cool to play in the big leagues, maybe even play for the Astros, the team that was now firmly entrenched as my favorite team. I continued to play through middle school and even into high school, but a funny thing happened on the way to becoming a major league star: I wasn’t that good at playing the game.

      I wasn’t terrible, just mediocre. I reached my peak in seventh and eighth grade and it went downhill from there. Or maybe it is more appropriate to say that all the truly good players overtook me in high school. It was apparent early on in my high school career that any hope of being a major league player was out of the question. Despite that, I did manage to have some good moments that I still remember fondly.

      While playing on the junior varsity team I was selected to pitch a number of times. I pitched so slow that the other teams had trouble hitting off me the first time through the line-up, but after that they had a tendency to crush the ball. One poor guy got so upset at the fact that he didn’t hit any of my pitches that he yelled at the next batter to be aware of my curve ball. I distinctly remember being surprised at that because I didn’t really have a curve ball, at least not an intentional one. That angry batter might have had the last laugh though if he hit the ball hard the next time he came up to bat.

      I eventually settled into the outfield in high school after playing third base for a number of years. I think the transition worked well because it took a little bit of the pressure off of me. Plus, even though I wasn’t fast I could generally catch just about anything that came my way. I wasn’t playing much in the games by my senior year, but I do remember one practice towards the end of the season when the outfielders got a chance to do a drill where we had to chase a ball down and try to catch it. When my turn came up, I ran after the ball and I, seeing that I wasn’t going to catch up to it, dove for it, making a pretty great catch. Everybody cheered for me. That was pretty neat. During the summer season, one of the other players once gave me a compliment by calling me ‘Mr. Automatic’ in the outfield. That really made my day.

      As I said, during my senior season I didn’t really play a lot. In fact, one time I actually quit the team, thinking I would play golf or some other sport. But after a day or two I realized that I just wanted to play the game and since I wasn’t going to be playing it much longer I came back to the team and apologized to the coaches. I remember one of the coaches smiling at me, letting me know that he was pleased I had made the right choice. It was a good thing I came back because our team went to the State tournament, and even though we didn’t win, it was a fun trip and I actually knocked in a run during the game. Got my name in the paper and everything. That never would have happened if I hadn’t stayed the course.

      During our end-of-the-season banquet, the coaches gave me an award for sticking with the team and not giving up. It came with a huge trophy, probably the biggest one I’ve ever received. I still have that one somewhere too. At the time I was a little upset about it because I would have rather been playing in the games, but as time has gone on I have come to appreciate that trophy more and more. Now that I am thinking about it, I think it spoke more to my identity than any idea I had of being a major league player. I’ve never had cause to be a baseball player after my senior year but I have had opportunities to be someone who never quit or gave up.

      While my identity as a baseball player was waning during those years I had to find something else to replace it. Turns out that while I was only mediocre in baseball, I was pretty good at math and science. By the time I finished with high school it was pretty obvious to me that the best path to take, career-wise, was engineering. And that is what I did. I went to Purdue University, a school that is well known for their engineering program and graduated with a degree in electrical engineering. Of course during those four years of school I assumed other identities for myself: college student, boilermaker, roommate, engineering student, and even boyfriend for a time.

      Most of those identities, by their very nature, were only temporary though. After graduating, I started working and assumed a whole new set of identities: electrical engineer, professional engineer, and employee. Throughout my career I have taken on other identities depending on my title or job description. These identities have lasted a long time for me. Outside of work I have maintained and even taken on more identities such as husband, daddy, friend, son, brother, and Christian.

      I’ve had a lot of identities over the years, some more permanent than others and some more important than others. Identity can be a funny thing, though. We don’t always know which one is most important to us. Have you ever listened to what comes out of your mouth when someone asks you to describe yourself? The first thing that comes out of your mouth in those situations can say a lot about who you think you are.

      Obviously context has a lot to do with how we choose to express ourselves to others. If you are in a work environment, you will most likely identify yourself in a way that makes sense. For instance, you may say that you are an engineer, or a manager, or something similar. It wouldn’t make sense to identify yourself as so-and-so’s husband or wife immediately. You might get some funny looks that way. However, let’s say you were at your wife’s reunion or were meeting some of her friends for the first time. In that situation, you would most likely identify yourself as her husband and not as an engineer. As those type of questions come up in the conversation then those other facets of your life will usually come out into the open.

      But how we choose to identify ourselves most can often reveal our priorities in life. Guys have a tendency to ask each other what they do. If a man asks me about myself I usually talk about my job or my place of employment before describing my family. Women, on the other hand seem to be more interested in the relationship side of things. If you are having a conversation with a woman she will tell you who her husband is, how many kids she has, etc. before going into what she does.

      Generally speaking, having priorities in life is not a bad thing and they really only tell us what we are focused on at any given time in our lives. And since life is constantly changing then it only makes sense that priorities—and by extension some of our identities—will change along with our lives. This is not usually a problem because the identities that we have in these situations tend to be superficial. If they change or fade away we are not at a big loss and will soon find another one.

      Beyond the superficial in each of us though there lies an identity that affects everything about us. Whether we hide it or let it out into the open this identity impacts all our decisions and affects how we view ourselves and other people. This is the identity that we need to get right in our life. Unfortunately, many people struggle to get this one right which amounts to confusion, heartache, and strife—not just strife with others but also within themselves.

      A classic example of such a predicament is a child who grows up wanting to be or do something and the parents wanting that child to do something else. Maybe the child wants to be an actor and is really good at it, but the parents think that would be a waste of time. They want the child to be a doctor instead and force the kid into medical school. If the child

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