Love Yourself, God Does

When I was in middle school and puberty hit, I experienced bad acne.  During this time in my life, my self esteem took a nose dive.  I was ashamed of how I looked.  I never was a really outgoing person to begin with but during this period I found if hard to put myself out there and talk to new people.  There are many things that cause different people to loose their self esteem.  A lot of you at some point in your lives have experienced something that caused your self esteem to drop.  I know several times in my life, when relationships ended I would always question myself...what's wrong with me?  I would examine myself under a proverbial microscope to look for things that were imperfect.  I have heard before that we are our biggest critic.  I believe that is true.  Honestly we will notice more things about ourselves that anyone else in this world will ever notice, and several things that we may see as our worst feature may not even be noticed by anyone else. 


I was reading Genesis recently and found this scripture, Genesis 1:26-27:


Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.


In reading this, I realize that we are all made in God's likeness.  God has created each one of us, and we all know that God is perfect.  God doesn't make mistakes, this fact alone should help us love ourselves more.  God created us exactly as he wanted us to appear.


Think about it, God loved us even before we were ever born, and even before your parents were born.  One of the most quoted passages of the Bible is John 3:16


For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.


No one currently alive today was in existence while Jesus walked this earth.  However, God loved the world so much that he sent his only Son to save us.  Our Heavenly Father, who had only one son... sacrificed his son Jesus Christ for us, if that's not love, then I don't know what is.  You find this to hold true, read John 15:13.  You see a similar statement of God's love in Romans 5:8 and in Ephesians 2:4.


As I read these scriptures, I've found myself thinking that if God made me perfect, and loves me so much that even though I am a sinner he still loves me, its is an awesome thought.  God loves all of us. The people of this world can be cruel, they will take your self esteem and try to knock you down. Remember this though, God made you in his likeness, you were not some random creation, no God specifically made you just the way you are.

Prayer:  Pray today that God will open your eyes to the things that are wonderful about you, attributes that He has specifically given you so that you may glorify His kingdom.