Loving Him = Loving Me+ Loving You

Today (6/9/19) I had the honor of being present as the message was brought forth at church from a friend. And let me tell you what a wonderful message it was. The essence of the message was asking if love is enough in our life? And more so is the love of Christ enough? Of course, the answer to his question was that only the love of Christ will always be enough. As I was captivated by listening to the message, I had no idea was about to happen next. As the speaker (John Hughes) continued, he directed us to scriptures found in Matthew chapter 22 MSG. He began to read: 

34-38 When the Pharisees heard how he had bested the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?” Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. 

Then it happened as he continued to read the next portion.

39-40 "But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law, and the Prophets hangs from them.”

It was in that moment as he read "Love other as well as you love yourself," that I felt the power of God hit me and press me into the seat I was sitting in. I have read this scripture at least a thousand times, why was it just hitting me now? LOL


THAT IS THE PROBLEM! 


Our society is filled with hate and struggles to show love to our neighbors as we should. How are we to love others if we are struggling with loving ourselves?



If we look around us, self-love is so unauthentic and superficial. It has been so grossly perverted that the world does not know what true self-love even looks like. We are told through our human standards that it is through the way we look. The compliments or likes that we receive. The financial or professional status that we hold. The longevity of a marriage. The success of our children. The color of our skin. The size of the house that we live in and the horrible, disgusting list goes on. 2 Timothy 3:1–5

And we wonder why it is so hard to authentically love others. 

The Deposit

From someone who has struggled with the concept of loving myself, I understand the difficulty of understanding true self-love. If I were to take the standards of the world, I would never be worth loving myself. Even if I took some of the indirect messages of friends and family in judgment, I would never be good enough to love myself. We are constantly shown our errors, past mistakes, and lies. 

To understand and experience true self-love, I first need a deposit of true unconditional love. 

The only source of unconditional love is through the example of Christ. 

We have heard the scripture time and time again of Christ loved us so much that he sent his son to die on the cross for us. (John 3:16) Do we understand the depth of that action. 

In Genesis, it speaks of God creating us in His image, but because of the action of sin in the Garden of Eden, we were stripped from the beauty of that and what that means. Furthermore, til this day, we find ourselves struggling to reclaim that inheritance. Secondly, at the mission of Satan, we are still walking around in the state of mind of exposure and shame that Adam and Eve felt when they ate the forbidden fruit.  

True self-love starts with acceptance of God's love and seeing ourselves through God's eyes. God sees us for who we are intended to be. He sees his promise in us. He sees his love in us. Christ heart hurt so much for our state of sin and wanted us so much to be back in fellowship with him that he died for us. Not the Hollywood death that we see on TV, but a gruesome death of pain and agony. Furthermore, the day he died on the cross for us, in his eyes, we were put into a reset. Everything we have done or were to do was equipped with a reset button. 2 Corinthians 5:17

So as we grow to accept and embrace our reset, we grow in knowing the true love of Christ and the love for ourselves will grow. Also, as we begin to exam the word to see how God views us, the deposit of affirmation through it will increase our true self-love, which in return will be contagious in allowing us to truly love our neighbors.

To start your journey of self-love, here are s few ways God's views us:

God Loves us John 3:16-17
God long to be with us. Revelation 21:3-4;  John 14:2-3.  
God only has plans of success for us
God sees us in our innocence. 2 Corinthians 5:17
Christ sees us a royalty, chosen, and holy 1 Peter 2:9
Christ sees us as friends John 15:15
Christ sees us as triumphant and able to conquer.  Romans 8:37
Christ sees us as good work. Philippians 1:6
Christ sees us a holy and beloved, having compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Colossians 3:12
I challenge you to search the word to find out more ways that God truly sees us through His eyes. 


Remember: You can only truly love your neighbor as you truly love yourself. But you can only truly love yourself as you draw into loving Christ. It all starts at the source of the deposit of love.  

Prayer: Dear love, please help me to see and understand your love for me. Lord, help me to accept that love and grow into understanding true self-love and the essence of my self-worth. Finally as I grow, allow me to show this love to those I encounter every day. Being a deposit of your love in my neighbors.