If We do not Love Ourselves, How can We Love Anybody else—R Fritz
We must love ourselves to understand what love is. Most people have not really thought about that aspect. If we have been hurt or bullied, we start to look at ourselves as unlovable. It is how we perceive ourselves, how we feel about ourselves, and becomes part of us. It is our inner voice that we listen to that is not of God, but of Satan. Because our self-esteem is so low, we buy into these thoughts that can take us to depression. It brings us back to how we feel because feelings make our day positive or negative. We have to learn to discard the words or our feelings that dictate what our day is like. Proverbs 19:8 says, “He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul: he that keepeth understanding shall find good.” That wisdom comes from God. God’s love changes our outcome in life from a person that was abused to a person God changed to help people like we were before God changed our circumstances.
Satan uses our thoughts to direct our actions. The first thing we must understand is Satan exists. He is the accuser of the brethren. Revelation 12:10 says “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.” The accuser (Satan) is constantly bringing to God’s attention our shortcomings (what Satan sees as sin). Satan wants us to sin and helps us to accomplish that then goes to God to accuse us of what we have done. God is all-knowing and knows what Satan has done to make sure we sin. When we understand who Satan is, we can recognize our thoughts, and those that are not righteous we can discard.
We combat Satan’s lies he gives us as thoughts with the Holy Spirit telling us the truth. Satan has a way he uses, a little bit of truth with a lot of lies. Satan hooks us because we see the truth and believe the rest of the statement or story. When we understand this and have the Holy Spirit, we have the ability to follow Jesus with the Holy Spirit giving us God’s wisdom. This is the choice we make every day to follow Jesus or not to follow him. It gets down to choosing to obey God with all our hearts and communicating with God through the Holy Spirit. That relationship dictates our life from then on.
Love started with God because God is love. God’s love is given freely to us, we just need to reciprocate in kind. A relationship with God and the receiving of the Holy Spirit gives us a heads-up where love becomes part of us. Love is not automatic because of our perception of love and God inventing love and being love so we need to engage God to understand God’s love. God’s love is not a feeling or an emotion. God’s love is unconditional and is used in everything he does, man’s love has an agenda or a need or changes depending on the situation. John 4:7-8,11-12 says “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.”
If our self-worth is low, it is because we dwell on our failures or what somebody else has told us. God made everybody with God-given gifts meaning we all are valuable. It is us believing in ourselves. That comes from accepting positive thoughts. God sent his Son (Jesus) to pay the price for sin because he loved us, all of us. The life we were given might not have been filled with love but let’s try to find people who can show us God’s love. That will change our lives and how we see life through our eyes. When we choose Jesus our perception of love will change, we just need to work through the issues that have been part of our life.
The pain we have from our past needs to be given to Jesus Christ and laid at his feet. We then need to pray and ask for God’s wisdom. Then read the bible verses that speak to us and our pain. Psalms 147:3 says “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” This is where our prayers come into our situation and have the ability to change everything. Psalms 34:17-19 says “The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh (near) unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite (remorseful) spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.” The righteous the Lord delivers from their issues that have deep regret for their wrongdoings.
The Lord is always near to us. He is waiting for us to say something, be it crying out or in prayer. Our free will, God will not overrule. He gave us free will and is waiting on us to have some communication with him. That communication is us making a real effort to start that relationship with a humble heart. We sometimes feel God has forgotten us but that is us forgetting about God.
We need to change the way we have done things and move closer to God. The Holy Spirit is waiting on us. Our response is in our hands and will change our life. God Bless.
