Being true to yourself is being true to your NEW self in Christ Jesus
Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life…Put on the new self, created after the likeness of
God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22,24)
Living, walking and looking like Christ (Romans 8:29, 1 John 2:6)...in the power of the Holy Spirit...
using MY God given talents, gifts and anointing to His glory...not trying to appropriate or imitate someone else's...
or try to fulfill/live up to another person's expectations for my life.
John Newton
I am not what I ought to be—ah, how imperfect and deficient! I am not what I wish to be—I abhor that which is evil, and I would cleave to that which is good. I am not what I hope to be—soon, soon I shall put off mortality, and with mortality all sin and imperfection! Though I am not what I ought to be, what I wish to be, and what I hope to be—yet I can truly say, I am not what I once was—a slave to sin and Satan! I can heartily join with the apostle and acknowledge, "By the grace of God—I am what I am!" (1 Corinthians 15:10)
Paraphrased by J.C. Ryle in Knots Untied
I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be in another world, but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the Grace of God I am what I am.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Truth Unchanged, Unchanging
The one urgent question confronting every man is the question, What of your self? Is the true self still in existence? Are the vision and the divine faculty still there?
Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, came down to earth and lived and died and rose again in order to save (Luke 19:10). He has borne the punishment that we deserve on account of sin and for spoiling and marring the image of God upon us. But He restores our soul to us. He gives us a new nature and fills us with power that will enable us to express this new and true self even as He expressed it Himself. This self expresses man as a son of God, well-pleasing in the sight of his Heavenly Father, and as an heir to eternal life...
“Battling Discouragement”, The Christian Warfare on Ephesians 6:10-13
https://thelogcollege.wordpress.com/2019/11/29/battling-discouragement-by-martyn-lloyd-jones/
You are never meant to be anything but yourself. Say, “I am myself, and I am meant to be myself; and all God asks of me is that I do my best and my utmost as I am”.
What God desires is that everyone of us should realize the privilege of being what we are. Though I am so unworthy and so small and insignificant, ‘I am what I am by the grace of God’, and God knows me, Christ died for me, even for me! I must not despise myself, and I must not be constantly comparing myself with others. I am to live my life with the temperament, the personality that God has given me. I intend to use it all to the utmost to the glory of God. I can do no more, and I know that God expects no more.
1 Corinthians 7:17
Let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him.
(NKJV) But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk.
1 Corinthians 12:7
To each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given (v. 4-6...gifts...service...working) for the common good.
Romans 12:6-8 (NLT)
In his grace, God has given (each) different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy (declare God's truth from His word), speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.
Personal Application
If God has called you to a specific ministry, equipped you by past (sometimes painful) experiences, gifted and
anointed you for that service; then get the needed training and JUST DO IT!
You will not be at peace until you surrender and obey.
Henry Ward Beecher "Faithfulness To Conviction"
https://books.google.com/books?id=rigPAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA459&lpg
Be true to yourself as a Christian man — a man according to the pattern of Christ Jesus. Be true to that manhood which has for its father, God; for its friend, Christ; for its light, the Holy Ghost. (BUT) in attempting to be true to yourself, beware of conceit, narrow-mindedness, indecent haste, of that laziness which refuses to read or think, of that presumption which leads you to suppose you can safely depart from the results of centuries of experience. So be true to yourself, with humility and meekness, with teachableness, with yearnings for a higher and better life.
Frederick William Robertson, Sermons Preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton, “Christian Progress by Oblivion of the Past” on Philippians 3:13-14
It is not by regretting what is irreparable that true work is to be done, but by making the best of what we are. It is not by complaining that we have not the right tools, but by using well the tools we have. What we are, and where we are, is God's providential arrangement - God's doing, though it may be man's misdoing; and the manly and the wise way is to look your disadvantages in the face, and see what can be made out of them. Life, like war, is a series of mistakes; and he is not the best Christian nor the best general who makes the fewest false steps. Poor mediocrity may secure that; but he is the best who wins the most splendid victories by the retrieval of mistakes. Forget mistakes: organize victory out of mistakes.
F.B. Meyer, Our Daily Walk
July 16, “God’s Appointment” on Jeremiah 1:5 "I formed thee... I knew thee... I sanctified thee; I have appointed thee."
God had a plan for Jeremiah's career, for which He prepared him. Ask what your work in the world is, that for which you were born, to which you were appointed, and on account of which you were conceived in the creative thought of God.
That there is a Divine purpose in thy being is indubitable. Seek that you may be permitted to realize it, and never doubt that you have been endowed with all the special aptitudes which that purpose may demand. God has formed you, and provisioned your heart, soul, mind and might with all that He knew to be requisite for your life-work. It is your part to elaborate and improve to the utmost the talents entrusted to your care.
Do not be jealous or covetous; do not envy another his talents, but answer the Divine intention in your creation, redemption, and call to service. It is enough for thee to be what God made thee to be, and to be always at thy best.
July 17 on Matthew 20:1
Whatever (life work) you choose, let it be subordinated to the one great purpose of helping God to save the world.
September 27
Dare to be yourself--a simple, humble, sincere follower of Jesus.
A.W. Tozer
Without doubt the most precious thing any man possesses is his individuated being; that by which he is himself and not someone else; that which cannot be finally voided by the man himself nor shared with another. Each one of us, however humble our place in the social scheme, is (God's) unique creation. Each is a new whole man possessing his own separate "I-ness" which makes him forever something apart, an individual human being.
We Travel an Appointed Way: Making Spiritual Progress
If we have faith, we will be concerned only with what God thinks of us. We can smile off man's opinion, whether it be favorable or unfavorable, and go our God-appointed way in complete confidence. It takes a lot of courage and independence of mind to insist upon being just what we are in Christ, and no more. But when the Lord comes, we will not have cause to regret that we did.
Renewed Day by Day
We ought to be fully aware that in the body of Christ we are not interested in the production of “cookie-cutter” Christians. This is a word of caution in the matter of Christian experience: there is no pattern or formula for identical Christian experiences. It is actually a tragic thing for believers to try to be exactly like each other in their Christian faith and life.
God has given each of us an individual temperament and distinct characteristics. It is the office of the Holy Spirit to work out as He will the details of Christian experience. They will vary with personality.
The Pursuit of God
Our Father is bursting with pleasure over an imperfect son who is coming every day to look more and more like the One whose child he is! This is the best of good news: God loves us for ourselves.
"Know Who You Are Not"
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/know-who-you-are-not
We are not called to "follow your heart", but to be a "man after God's own heart." (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22)
CAUTION
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Spiritual Depression
Do we know ourselves? Do we know our own particular danger? Do we know the things to which we are particularly subject?
We have to watch our strength and we have to watch our weakness. If I am naturally an introvert I must always be careful and warn myself lest I slip into morbidity. The extrovert must in the same way know himself and be on his guard against the temptations peculiar to his nature.