Flawed (Part 7)

Flawed (Part 7)

Jude 1:21 "Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."

Three things to remember:

-Telling yourself what a failure you are won't make you any more successful. 

-Telling yourself you're not living up to your full potential won't help you reach a higher potential. 

-Telling yourself you're worthless and unlovable won't make you feel any more worthy or lovable.

Loving yourself is based on receiving the unending love that God has for us. You cannot love God until you have first received from Him and allowed His love to permeate the way you see yourself. The love God empowers you to see yourself through that love. Therefore, you can know you have plugged into God's love when you are able to love yourself properly.

Loving yourself allows you to see yourself the way God sees you in thoughts, words and actions. You are able to relate to yourself from a motivation of love. You get a sense of how God sees you; therefore, you live your life based on that perception and not the perception of others. 

Loving yourself involves unconditional acceptance. There is no way to move forward from your without first accepting yourself in love, right where you are, with no strings attached. God is not performance based, but bases His presence in your life with love.

Loving yourself establishes your worth and value in a dynamic way. It sets the tone for the way you establish your worth in life. When you love yourself properly, you gain a healthy sense of value based on the simplicity of being loved.

Loving yourself is built on kindness and patience. 1 Corinthians 13 tells you that patience and kindness are the main pillars of love. They make way for the rest of love's power to manifest. Kindness is what love gives out. Patience is what love can handle.

Loving yourself is not based on your circumstances. In fact, the more challenging circumstances become, the more you need to love yourself. Otherwise anger, contempt, self-accusation and self-hate will scream in your thoughts all day long. Your flaws will be magnified. Love silences the power of those voices and gives you authority over them in Jesus' name.

Loving yourself cultivates an acceptance of your flaws. Self-love puts all your struggles and weaknesses into the right perspective. It even puts sin in the right perspective. Love doesn't ignore sin. It covers it and creates an atmosphere whereby sin can be healed and powerfully eradicated. There is no need to obsess over areas of weakness many people try to hide every day. Instead, you can affirm who you are and be authentic. Love frees you to be yourself without shame, eliminating the fear of exposure and condemnation. God's love allows you to live accepted, safe and at peace in your own skin.

Loving yourself has a lot to do with self-compassion. When you learn to love yourself, you give to yourself what you would often extend to someone you love dearly. Loving yourself satisfies the deep longing of your heart while establishing a powerful reservoir of compassion to pour out to others.

Loving yourself allows you to look in the mirror and like what you see. This is by far the most challenging for so many. For most of my life, looking at a picture of myself or catching a glance in the mirror were frustrating experiences. I always tried to be what I thought everybody wanted me to be at the expense of just being myself. No one taught me that seeing myself with kind eyes was incredibly important to my health and sanity.

When you don't love yourself, you become trained to see yourself with an altered perception that is negative. Your flaws become so magnified, you see things even those around you do not notice. When you do not love yourself, you become trained to see yourself with an altered perception that is negative. You are enough just as you are and self-love will be a little bit easier every time you remind yourself of that. God loves you just like you are!