Love Yourself

Aren’t people beautiful? You may not spend a lot of time thinking about it but I’m a photographer. It’s my privilege to find beauty in people.

[show favorite images of all ages]

I believe everyone is created beautiful. I’m not blind. I believe the word of God and it says we are created in God’s own image. Genesis 1:27 – God actually repeats this, He really means it! A God who creates such beauty is surely beautiful Himself!

It’s funny. I have no difficulty finding beauty in most everyone else. Yet I have such a hard time finding it in myself. I know that I am not alone in finding it difficult to love myself. There are a lot of contributing factors.

The longer I walk with God the more I know about Him. And honestly, about myself. Through out this series we’ve talked about His love letter to us. The more we read and understand God’s Word, the more we hear what He has to say about us. Here are a few biblical truths written about you:

• Created in His image. Genesis 1:27
• Fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14
• He loves you enough to die for you. John 3:16
• He created you as a temple for His spirit to dwell. 1 Corinthians 6:19
• Created for good works. Ephesians 2:10

I know these things. I’ve drilled them into my brain. And yet I struggle - specially in the pastoral training process. Why do I still doubt my worth?

[last week’s test tutorial experience – the voice shouting in my brain – “you’re not good enough, you can’t do this!”]

After the tutorial I was relaying my feelings of inadequacy to Rob – he realized that even though this inner voice sound just like me, I have actually mistaken the devil’s voice for my own.

The reality is that Satan is a great ventriloquist. The best actually. He can speak and it will look and sound just like you. He wants to waylay your plans and destroy God’s calling on your life. The Bible tells us that His goal is to steal, kill and destroy. Why would we listen to Him?

And yet we do. How many of us have bought into the lie that we are not good enough. That we can never change. That we are junk and we’ll never be anything more than junk.

Remember Psalm 139:14?

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

 We are fearfully and wonderfully made. That doesn’t sound like junk to me? Junk is the Emerson sound system you can buy for twenty bucks at Walmart that will break in a week. Fearfully and wonderfully made is the Bose sound system that you fork over a thousand dollars for and expect to last for decades. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, high quality craftsmanship.

Remember Ephesians 4:10?

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

We are His workmanship. The Greek word used here is ‘poem’. We are His poem. A poem is a thing of beauty and grace, a true expression from the heart of the writer. We are His poem.

We know we are made in His image, and that it is a good image. We know we are created for good works. How do we remove the voice of Satan from our heads?

I have three practical steps to shut down the lies of the devil in your head.

1)     Drive him off in Jesus name. You are a saved child of God, He has no business in your life anymore. The devil hates the name of Jesus. Remind yourself that the devil is a liar and a thief and you want no part of that.

2)     Saturate your life with the word of God. The more you read God’s word, the more you’ll know how to pray. You’ll be familiar with His promises to you. Jesus Himself used scripture to fight off Satan’s fiery darts, so this is a great example to us.

3)     Declare your dependency on and sufficiency in Christ.

When we are dependant, we acknowledge our absolute need for Him. We know that we are weak and fallen vessels. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12:11 that when we are weak, He is strong. We need Him to show himself strong in us and admitting our weakness is a great starting point.

      When we are sufficient in Christ we are saying that He is more than     enough. John 10:10 tells us that the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy          but Jesus came to give us life and life to the full. If Jesus called you to do   something (school or witnessing or serving or fulfilling a specific dream)          you can trust that He is going to equip you for the task. And when you           complete it, you’ll give Him the glory.

There’s something more here though. I’ve given you practical steps to love yourself, but love is not that mechanical. It’s not a chemistry problem where you use specific ingredients in the correct order and heat it to the desired temperature and ‘presto’ you love yourself.

I wrestled with this conclusion. I honestly struggle with loving myself, but the longer I walk with Jesus the easier it has become. I was trying to put my finger on what it is that has changed, how am I ‘ok’ in Christ? I prayed and prayed about this message and this morning I finally had my ahah moment. It came to me like this…

When Rob fell in love with me, I was, for the first time, able to see myself in a new light. He loved everything about me. He was passionate, persistent, and vocal about his love for me. He insisted that I was beautiful, interesting, and important. And I believed him completely. My step was lighter, the world is brighter – all because this incredible person had chosen me to be with.

This is what we can experience with Jesus. When you spend time in devotions with Him – literally devoting yourself to Him, sharing your life with Him – you will learn to hear His voice and feel His intense affection for you.

Loving Jesus is where we learn to love ourselves.

When you are cherished by the Creator, you will see yourself through His eyes, a precious part of His creation. You’ll know there is something special about you because He says so. You’ll feel secure in who you are because Jesus doesn’t make mistakes.

Altar: [Gungor: Beautiful Things]

What did you connect with tonight?

Did you realize for the first time that satan is the liar in your head?

Maybe you realized that you can’t connect with what God’s word says about you if you haven’t read it.

Perhaps you realize you haven’t allowed yourself to fall in love with Jesus?

Maybe you have been living in your own strength.

Take a few moments here at the altar to sort these things out. Come let Jesus show you His incredible love for you.