WHEN YOU DON’T LIKE YOURSELF
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Matthew 22:39
A lady who had lived a life of sexual immorality, drugs, aborted babies, rebellion and bad choices told me one day in a time of brokenness, “I hate my life!” As I looked into her wounded eyes, I knew what she was really saying was, “I hate myself.”
She is not alone. Lots of people do not like themselves… lots of Christians struggle with loving themselves. It is a big problem. Is it a problem for you?
WHAT CAUSES THE SELF-REJECTION?
The cause of not liking yourself often starts with the physical. People think they look weird or ugly or unacceptable. They are too fat or too skinny… too tall or too short… too this or too that. So many do not like the way God made them.
Another cause is not the physical but the emotional. People suffer rejection from a mom or a dad or a spouse due to divorce or abandonment. They suffer rejection at school because they do not fit in for whatever reason. They conclude that they are flawed and freakish… “It’s no wonder people do not like me,” they lament.
Still another cause, and perhaps the biggest, is sin. People sin and it makes them feel guilty and ashamed inside – and the greater the sin, the greater the feelings of self-loathing. This starts a vicious cycle. If I feel like trash, I began doing trashy things… making me feel more like a piece of trash.
WHAT TO DO?
It is really important to love yourself. You cannot love others until you love yourself. How can you start doing it?
1. Focus on His love for you. “We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). The cross of Jesus Christ is God’s permanent reminder that He loves you! If He can love you that much… surely you can love you, too!
2. Believe what God says about you. In Isaiah 43:4 the Lord tells you that you are precious and honored. You are not a piece of trash… a bum… a loser… a reject… damaged goods. You are precious to Him. That is why Jesus shed His precious blood for you on the cross (1 Peter 1:19). Quit believing the lies of the devil and start believing the truth of God’s word.
3. Confess all bitterness and ingratitude. God has a right to make you however He wants to. He is the potter and you are the clay (Rom. 9:21).
4. Thank God for the way He made you. Psalm 139:14 reads, “I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” If you can easily fix a part of your body that needs fixing (teeth, weight, bunions, etc.) do it. But thank God for the way that He made. You are a God original.
5. Yield yourself to His Lordship. The Lord wants to make you like Christ. He is more interested in inner beauty than outer beauty. Yield to Him and His plan for your life… and let the potter have His way. He will make something very beautiful from your life if you will simply let Him.
Love,
Pastor Jeff Schreve,
From His Heart Ministries
