To Love Yourself is To Love God

“For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.’ — Ephesians 5:29

When I read this scripture in the Bible it honestly surprised me. I have lived a life with a very harsh self-critic. At times you could say even hating myself. I’ve had thoughts telling me I am not good enough, I am weird, I am too broken etc. Now that I am on the other side of it, I know these things aren’t true. But being the human that I am I must remind myself of just how precious I am to God. If you are struggling with this, I want you to know that God makes no mistakes. He knew before you were born what you would look like, the quirks you would have, and the experiences you would go through (good and bad) while here on earth. He knew it all.

“So God created man in his own image.” -Genesis 1:27

When you reject yourself, hate on yourself, or do even worse, you are doing the same to God. How could you fully experience God’s love, if you can’t love what he has created? You are God’s creation. To love yourself in an honoring way is to honor God.

It’s so easy to criticize ourselves when we are consuming content daily, telling us what we should look like, what we should wear, what we should watch, what we should enjoy. These things hold no true value in the kingdom of God. All God cares about is your heart. You do not have to strive to have the “perfect” anything. God knew we were sinners and God knew we would make mistakes. When we don’t place our value on the things of this world, then we will know God.

If God doesn’t say it about you, why would you say it about yourself?

You have to realize just how damaging the negative self-talk is. I know it’s hard, and sometimes these traits that we have are things that we didn’t ask for. I can’t speak for everyone, but I grew up in a very critical environment. As a result, I became very critical of myself, I wanted to beat anyone to the punch of having anything negative to say about me. So in turn, I overly criticized myself to be “perfect”. Maybe you are like me, and negative self-talk is all you’ve ever known. But that is not what God wants for you. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”

If you are struggling to find yourself in the world like I was, you will never find it. I don’t know what your life journey has looked like or what trauma you may carry. But I know God can heal whatever you are hurting from. You won’t have to question who you are when you know God. God knows exactly who you are.

“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” — Psalm 134:14

Loving yourself will change so many things in your life for the better. When you heal and love yourself is when you will truly be able to love others. Whatever we focus on within ourselves is what we focus on in others. If we focus on hate, we find hate. If we focus on love, we will find love. “Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this. To lay down one’s life for one’s friends” — John 15:12–13

Finally, I want you to know that Jesus loves you even when you do not love yourself. You may think no one understands you, or truly sees you but he does. Give God what you are hiding, I promise he can handle it. Let go of the control you think you have on your life by being overly critical.

If you let him, he will change you like he did me.