Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus replied: Love The Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”
It’s easy to say that we should love The Lord with all of our heart. It’s even easy to say the next part, love your neighbor as yourself. What happens, though, if we don’t love ourselves? We are often our own harshest critics. We beat ourselves up over the tiniest things thinking we are unworthy of others’ praise and often even unworthy of God’s love.
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If we find ourselves unworthy, then we don’t truly love ourselves. And if we don’t love our neighbor as we don’t love ourselves…well, you see the flaw in that. We run the risk of ‘doing’ for our neighbor to show we love them but not feeling it first. That’s not Godly love.
In the Old Testament, God chose the imperfect to do great things for Him. Moses, David, Noah, etc…Why did He use them? Because despite their human flaws, He loved them and knew they could get the job done. The secret to these guys’ success had nothing to do with what great and wonderful people they were to begin with. No, instead it came because they listened to God. They listened, and they obeyed. What an amazing display of trust and commitment! We can do that, too, if we can keep from getting too wrapped up in believing we are unworthy, in what is wrong with us (we all believe we have something ‘wrong’ with us, right?), then we can dig through those layers and get to what’s real – our relationship with Christ. Only here, underneath these layers of insecurity, can we truly connect with Him. That’s when we can hear Him. And the next tricky part, once we hear Him, we have to make the choice to listen and to obey.
We are worthy. We’re made that way. Our very essence makes us worthy. How does that affect us as Christians? Without insecurities holding us back, think of what can be accomplished in His name. I challenge you to change your mindset. In all ways.
Today’s Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for loving us just as we are. Help us to know our worth in you and use it to love ourselves and our neighbors as much as we love you.
Personal Challenge: Think of three things you love about yourself. Journal them. Refer to them when you’re feeling unworthy.
[…] If people don’t read the complete posts, they may believe my goal is to focus only on ourselves and not on Jesus. That has never been my intention. I just know that if we don’t believe we are worthwhile, if we don’t love who we are, then we can’t authentically and confidently share Him with others. We can’t love others as ourselves if we don’t love ourselves. […]