God's Masterpiece: How God Sees You
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About this ebook
If you struggle with insecurity, lack of self-confidence, or a faulty self-image, to be yourself or to like yourself, you are not alone. God has walked me through my image problems and He can and will do the same for you. Everyone wants to know how to become the person they’ve always wanted to be.
Sometimes when people talk about improving themselves, they really mean that they want to be someone else. We’ve all had days when we can’t find anything good about ourselves. Maybe we had a bad hair day or behaved in ways we didn’t like. Maybe we saw someone else get the thing that we wanted in life, like a promotion, and we felt like something was wrong with us. After too many bad days we start believing that we are the problem and need to change somehow. But, when we start changing elements of our personality because we feel inadequate, we have gone too far. If we’re not careful we can fall into depression and begin to hate ourselves.
Usually we try to define ourselves through relationships, jobs, money and possessions, or social status and popularity thinking that these things will make us better people. We need a way to define ourselves that can withstand the pressures of this life; and understand our value based on a standard that does not shift from one day to the next but remains constant no matter what happens. Our values should not depend on what other people or our circumstances say about us, they should only depend on what God says about us.
The Lord has helped me through my insecurity issues by showing me many of the things that I discuss in this book. I have learned (and continue to learn) these principles through daily living and experiences with the living God and these same principles can help you through some of your issues too. The Lord expects us to use what He has done for us to help others through their trials and tribulations.
Read this book with an open mind and spirit to hear what God has to say. And at the end we’ll all come out differently, yet more ourselves than when we started. God bless!
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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God's Masterpiece - Phillip Watkins
God’s Masterpiece
How God Sees You
Copyright 2014 Phillip L. Watkins
Published by Docs2eBooks at Smashwords
Cover design 2014 by Melanie Smith
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy.
Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are taken from The Amplified® Bible (AMP)
Dedication
To my wife, Sarah, God has certainly blessed me with the best partner and companion that a man could ask for. To my children Jackson, Pressley, Oliver, and the one on the way, you all fill our lives with joy. I could not imagine life without you.
Foreword
At some point in every person’s life, we struggle with self-image and purpose for our lives, and often church culture and religion hinder or even injure people as they seek answers. Phillip was just such a person, never finding answers nor healing for his self-image and emotions in the culture of church, so he launched out on his own journey to discover what God really thinks of him. He walked it out step by step, truth by truth, and began experiencing the healing and receiving the answers he sought.
The depth with simplicity that characterizes God’s Masterpiece: How GOD Sees YOU walks the reader through his own journey in practical, non-church language and into his final breakthrough into freedom and peace.
On the one hand he knew God must be good, but what he believed God to be versus the sin focus of church culture and the expectations in the world were contradictions swirling around in his mind to the point he didn't know what he should think of himself.
I've known Phillip many years in various capacities—friend, mentor, pastor—and have watched his life be transformed by the truths he presents here. This is a life-changing book because it isn't written in a church way or in Christian-ese, but is his story told in real terms with real examples, as he bares his soul.
For instance, chapter 2 is God Created You (And You are Good).
This flies in the face of a religion which focuses on sin and how evil we are. He writes with practical, real life examples the positive elements of God’s love and investment in our lives. Chapter 3, God Created You (On Purpose) For a Purpose
offers bold proof of a divine purpose that is unique for each individual, and which is completely opposite the directionless existence of modern culture.
The reader is brought to the conclusion we've all inwardly hoped for but what religion often denies: It is okay to be us with all our faults and foibles, for God wants us to walk with Him through life and has a solution for all our human frailties. Phillip’s struggle is every person’s struggle, and the peace he found can be yours too as you walk with him through God’s Masterpiece: How GOD Sees YOU.
John Fenn
The Church Without Walls International
http://supernaturalhousechurch.org/
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 Where It All Began
Chapter 2 God Created You (And You Are Good)
Chapter 3 God Created You (on Purpose) For a Purpose
Chapter 4 Jesus Died to Buy You Back
Chapter 5 God Invited You into His Royal Family
Chapter 6 Know Who You Are in Christ
Chapter 7 Accepting Yourself Affects How You Relate to Others
Chapter 8 Beginning Your Adventure
Chapter 9 Seek After God
Conclusion
Prayer
A Note From the Author
Acknowledgment
About Phillip Watkins
Connect With Phillip Watkins
Introduction
Self-help books abound in the world today. Books about losing weight, marrying the right person, finding the right job, and many others fill the shelves of bookstores everywhere. Everyone wants to know how to become the person that they’ve always wanted to be. But, despite all of the books available to us we can’t seem to find the solutions that will give us peace of mind and contentment.
Now, I believe in self-improvement. The Lord knows that I still have a long way to go before I reach my full potential. But, sometimes when people talk about improving themselves, they really mean that they want to be someone else. We’ve all had days when we’ve struggled to find something good about ourselves. Maybe we had a bad hair day or behaved in ways we didn’t like. Maybe we saw someone else get the thing that we wanted in life, like a promotion, and we felt like something was wrong with us. Or, maybe we came face-to-face with a situation that just showed us that we needed to change.
After too many bad days we start believing that we are the problem, therefore we need to change somehow. Now, we should change socially unacceptable, rude, mean, or detrimental behaviors that affect ourselves and others. Like I said, I believe in self-improvement. But when we start changing elements of our personality because we feel inadequate, we have gone too far. If we don’t like ourselves we search for ways to increase our self-worth and to improve our self-image. If we’re not careful we can fall into depression and begin to hate ourselves. Usually though we might just try to define ourselves through relationships, jobs, money and possessions, or social status and popularity thinking that these things will make us better people.
We all naturally desire these things. Relationships help us share joys and endure the hard times. Work and money help us feed our families and allow us to buy the things that we need and want. Even popularity can give us a platform to reach people. When we define ourselves through these things though, we encounter problems. Relationships don’t always work out. Dating relationships can end and even friends can lose touch with each other. So what happens to our self-image when those relationships end, when we no longer have them there to prop us up?
What if we feel good about ourselves because of our jobs? Well, people lose their jobs all the time, and often not because of anything that they did wrong. Economies can turn, companies can downsize, anything can happen. What about money and possessions? Losing a job can certainly affect how much money we have. Disasters such as fire, hurricanes, and floods can destroy everything that we own. How will we see ourselves if we’ve lost it all?
What about popularity and social status? People have notoriously fickle tastes, liking something one day and hating it the next. If they treat clothes, music, movies, and celebrities this way, why would they treat us any differently? We’d have to constantly update ourselves just to keep up with the next best thing. At what point do we lose ourselves to the next update? That gets tiring after a while.
None of these methods will help us in the long run because they won’t last. We need a way to define ourselves that can withstand the pressures of this life. We need to understand our value based on a standard that does not shift from one day to the next but will remain constant no matter what happens. Our values should not depend on what other people or our circumstances say about us, they should only depend on what God says about us.
Many people, including myself, have struggled with insecurity at one point or another in their lives. The Lord has helped me