Discover Your True SelfChip Ingram wrote Discover Your True Self: Silence the Lies of Your Past and Actually Experience Who God Says You Are (Zondervan) in 2020. Currently, Chip serves as teaching pastor and CEO of Living on the Edge. Chip structures this book around six lies that become strongholds for many people. In addition, each lie is followed by a chapter that pulls down the stronghold to help you discover your true self. Because all of us experience distortions that warp our lives and relationships. Thus, the root cause of many of your problems centers on an inaccurate view of ourselves. Above all, a distorted image of God takes us pretty far off track in life. Therefore, one of God’s primary desires involves knowing who we are in His eyes.
Furthermore, God calls you for a purpose only you can fulfill. However, if we fail to experience the gospel of grace. we find ourselves in a constant search for something more. Hence, healthy and unhealthy drives intertwine. Two distinct but converging streams that run alongside each other in a person’s heart. So, to truly grasp what it means to be in Christ, you must understand the biblical concept of adoption. That you’re chosen and adopted by a Father who will never leave you. Also, Pastor Ingram stresses, the search for identity closely relates to the search for significance. For until we know who we are, we can’t know how valuable we are. To know God made us for a reason is the most beautiful thing that can happen to us.
Yet, if we fail to understand Good and what He’s done, we look for security in all the wrong places. Instead, see yourself as a trophy of God’s grace. Jesus provides a powerful antidote to your deepest, most personal wounds. Identify your shame, call it out, and take it to Jesus. For God’s grace overpowers shame. The gospel creates rebirth — it’s not a self-improvement program. And as your misbeliefs continually give way to truth, God remains faithful to transform you. When you explore your guilt, God begins a healing process that removes the symptoms and deals with the root cause. In the process, you discover your true self.
In conclusion, Pastor Ingram exhorts, don’t let hopelessness paralyze you. Rather, take a step toward God. God will take every other step toward you. Your highest and greatest identity = a beloved and secure son or daughter of the King. God created you exactly the way he wanted you to be, to fulfill something no one else can. Therefore, seek and find your holy ambition — your dream of serving God in a particular way that matches your God-given purpose. Simply live each day as a reflection of God’s grace. Finally, with God at home in your heart, you’ll find yourself at home in Him. And the things that come out of your heart build others up!
