What If They Don’t Know How To Love Themselves?

 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭22‬:‭37‬-‭40‬ ‭KJV


“Jesus replied, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love Him with all your mind.’ (Deuteronomy 6:5) This is the first and most important commandment. And the second is like it. ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ (Leviticus 19:18) Everything that is written in the Law and the Prophets is based on these two commandments.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭22‬:‭37‬-‭40‬ ‭NIRV



Today’s Children’s Message, at our church, included this passage. The sermon was heavily about love today - God’s perfect, incomprehensible love. I had the most heartbreaking thought about the “love your neighbor as you love yourself” part… What if the root cause underneath all of the people on people violence in this world is because the enemy keeps convincing some hurting, confused individuals into believing they shouldn’t love themselves. How can we possibly love others, as they are, if we don’t love ourselves as we are?


Love doesn’t make sense…but we are all loved! You will never look into the eyes of someone that God doesn’t love. Even if you disagree with them. Even if they choose to treat you or others badly. Even if they sin differently than you. God loves even those who deny Him. He is saddened by their choices to ignore the salvation He is freely offering them, but their rejection doesn’t negate His perfect love. He is also just, and He keeps all His promises - as our pastor said this morning: even the not so pretty or pleasant ones. Condemnation is a promise. Love, and salvation are also promises. 


We have all fallen short of the glory of God. We have also sinned and broken His laws. However, like the father in the story of the Prodigal Son, our loving Father is always watching, waiting for us to wake up, change our hearts, and humbly return to Him with repentance. 


To God, we all are beautiful creations. Every one of us were made wonderfully and fearfully in His image! He loves you! As sinners, we are unworthy of His love. But as His creation, His chosen, adopted, beloved children we are worth it ALL to Him……and we are loved! 


God doesn’t make mistakes - that whole being perfect thing of His is not a fluke. He made you and me exactly as we should be. The enemy, and the world may try telling us differently. But when we seek the heart of God in His Word we will find the truth! The truth will overcome the darkness, it will overcome the lies, and it will reveal that we are loved. 


Let’s stop planting, repeating, or reinforcing the lies of this world. A boy who likes fashion or cleanliness is not born in the wrong body, he’s just a little fancy. A girl who likes to dress in comfortable, baggy clothes and play in the dirt or build things was never meant to be a male, they’re just a bit of a tomboy. Telling someone anything else is not teaching them to love themselves…it does the total opposite. We need to gently, yet firmly, remind them of the truth. God didn’t make a mistake - any voice suggesting otherwise is lying, and is not loving. 


As we seek God’s heart, love becomes nonnegotiable…as in, we cannot possibly live without it. We also come to learn that love is a verb. We must choose love, without lies. Love is always kind, but it’s not always nice. We must put that love into action. We must keep our hearts open, and we absolutely must never stop praying for our enemies. 


The battle is not about color, or belief, or politics, or biology…the battle is spiritual! The enemy wants to deter, distract, and destroy us with his lies. The enemy wants us so busy fighting each other that we forget to love one another, and we don’t know how to love ourselves. The enemy wants to separate us from Jesus by making us believe He could never love us after what we have done. Don’t believe the lies! Bury yourself in God’s Word…and write His truth on your heart. Speak His truth over yourself, your family, and your friends. Consult His truth when you feel your anger getting incited by things going on in this world. Let His truth teach you real love. 

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