Loving Yourself
I recently listened to someone preaching and they happened to speak about the importance of loving yourself. The preacher who had mentioned the importance of loving yourself said that when we don’t love ourselves how can we truly love another? I pondered this and knew this was an area in which I really struggled. God once showed me that the curses of self-destruction I had continually spoken over myself were the root of some of my ailments I suffered and then begun to teach me of the importance of understanding our being covered in the robe of righteousness.
When I got back home after I heard the preaching on ‘loving yourself’ I was pondering what he spoke and thinking about how much the Bible speaks about laying down self and self-sacrifice. How does loving yourself fit into this? I decided to do a study and seek God on this important matter as I wanted to get the divine balance correct. The Bible tells us in Matthew 6:33 to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and everything else will be added unto you. Seeking first His Kingdom is all about seeking His will and His ways and putting them above our own. Seeking His righteousness is all about understanding that our righteousness is through our belief in Jesus alone to cover our sins and save us. No amount of striving to be righteous in our own strength and striving to remove our own sins saves us. It is only through accepting Jesus as our Lord and Saviour that we are saved. Nor are we justified (made right with God) through our own works and methods. We need to understand that our own works of righteousness are as filthy rags and it is only through the putting on of the robe of righteousness that we are deemed worthy to partake and enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Trying to be perfect in our own strength is works and lack of trust in the righteousness of Christ to perfect us. This however does not mean that we are to see ourselves as worthless because this is unbelief in the robe of righteousness to make us right before God. It is also insulting the workmanship of God and the image of God as we are made by Him in His image.
So many of us are people-pleasers, wanting to please people and please God because we don’t want to let them down. By doing this we can sometimes negate ourselves and our own needs in order to fulfil the Scriptures that tell us to lay down our lives for another. Is negating ourselves what we are supposed to do? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself (Luke 10:27, KJV). According to this Scripture it appears that loving God, loving your neighbour and loving yourself should all be of equal importance. What then does loving thyself look like? According to Essential Life Skills loving yourself means ‘to accept yourself as you are and come to terms with those aspects of yourself that you cannot change. It means to have self-respect, a positive self-image and unconditional self-acceptance’. In today’s society self-image is of great importance. The world is obsessed with looks, body image and doing all you can to be successful. Is it any wonder many of us are looking at our imperfections and unable to love ourselves? There is so much expectation and pressure that is put on people to measure up to a set standard, and when you can’t attain to this standard of perfection, ‘lack of self-worth ensues’. If you can attain to this standard through your own works and efforts, many times you can end up with pride and self-righteousness which also negates the robe of righteousness.
As I was pondering all this I heard the Lord speaking and this is what I believe He said, “It is now time to focus on you and your needs. Did I come to be served or to serve? I came to serve all of mankind. It was My willingness to do this above My own needs and desires that got Me exalted. Is it the same for you? Absolutely – you are to mirror My ways and actions. When you seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness above your own will, needs and desires everything else is added unto you. This is dying to self. Does this mean I expect you to burn-out and experience overload because you have negated to look after yourself? Absolutely not. How can you care for others if you are not caring for yourself? Loving yourself means to look after your health and well-being as well as accepting yourself in your imperfections and loving yourself as I love you. There are times that I will tell you to lay down your ministry and rest, while other times I will tell you to take up your bed and walk. This is faith in Me to do as I promised and in the walking you walk into your healing. This is faith and obedience to My commands. What am I saying? I care for you and your well-being and will instruct you accordingly. At first I told you to rest and lay down ministering, and then I told you to step out and start ministering again and in doing so you would receive your healing. Why has this not happened? Did you make a mistake? Absolutely not – you are currently walking toward your healing. Putting the needs of others above your own needs should never mean you are to negate or put aside your own needs to the detriment of your health. You know your own capability and what you can handle. When you reach this point and can no longer do it, and it becomes a real struggle seek Me for direction. Pray and ask for My strengths to flow into those weak areas. If you have asked for this and it does not happen then seek Me for the keys to show you why. Is this not the case for you?” I answered ‘yes’ and told Him I was really struggling and didn’t understand why I had not yet received my healing as I stepped out in faith and did what He asked of me. He replied, “The answer is within yourself. The word of God says to love your neighbour as you love yourself, but you do not love yourself. Much of the world rates how much they love themselves on their looks and on their successes. You don’t love yourself because you are a perfectionist and want everything about yourself to be perfect. You dislike your imperfections and judge yourself. My word (Isaiah 54:17) says that every tongue that rises up in judgement against you, you shall condemn. When you judge yourself worthless or not good enough you are condemning yourself. Your righteousness is from Me and when you are believing yourself not good enough you are negating the power of the righteousness of Christ. You become a blockage to the healing power of the righteousness of Christ. You are not seeking first His righteousness so how can everything else be added unto you? You still see yourself through the eyes of the world and I need to show you yourself through the robe of righteousness. The robe of righteousness is head knowledge, you understand it, but are unable to walk in it. The power of the robe of righteousness will heal your lack of self-worth and make you able to accept yourself and love yourself even in your imperfections. In fact you will grow to love them. You need My eyes to see. Ask Me to give you My eyes to see your self-worth and the power of being covered in His righteousness. Your self-worth is in the righteousness of Christ. He takes away the pressure of performance. In order for Me to do this for you there is still one more thing for you to do. You have to lay down wanting to be perfect through the eyes of the world. Being perfect in the eyes of the world is an impossible feat, and a standard that no one can ever achieve. What does laying it down entail? This means when you lay this down you are willing to let go of worrying about what others think. I can heal this wound in you and remove its power over you. It also means you are giving Me permission to change your focus from ‘trying to look good’ to ‘being conscious of your health and well-being’ and enabling that to become the main focus. I want My children to become more health-conscious and care more for their health and well-being ahead of their appearance and popularity status. I need for My children to be fit, able and strong. Poor dietary choices and fleshly pleasures need to be exchanged for healthy food choices and choices essential for health and well-being. An example of this is instead of putting your feet up all day watching television, go for a walk as this is better for you. Loving oneself is care and nurture for yourself. In this decision you are still ‘seeking first the Kingdom’ because you are exchanging fleshly needs for essential needs which is loving yourself, as you love Me and love others.”
(PRAYER) – “Father God in Jesus name I repent for not loving myself as I love others. I also repent for condemning myself because my tongue rose up in judgement against myself. I repent for negating the power of the righteousness of Christ within me because of the times I judged myself not good enough, and also for the times I judged myself righteous, holy or good because of my own works of righteousness and achievements. I forgive myself for not measuring up to the world’s standards. I lay down wanting to be perfect in the eyes of the world and I lay down seeing myself through the eyes of the world. Please give me eyes to see myself through the covering of the robe of righteousness. Let the power of the robe of righteousness wash right through me and over me. Thank You that the robe of righteousness can heal the way I view myself. I repent for perfectionism and self-obsession. I ask that You would change my mind-set and focus from caring about my self-image to caring about my health and well-being so I can be well and better serve Your Kingdom. I ask that You would also help me go from entering into fleshly indulgent pleasures that make me feel good to entering into needful practices that make me feel well. Please Holy Spirit help me make better choices so I can be fit, able and strong. I ask that You would also heal all wounds of not being good enough, people pleasing, and perfectionism and help me to accept and love myself just as I am. Thank You Lord Jesus, Amen.”
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, NKJV).
By Tania Francis