Loving Ourselves the Right Way

 

Philippians 2:3(NLT)
"Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.”

God desires to see us blessed. We can depend on this. 1John 4:8(ESV) states, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Because our Heavenly Father is love, He is the definitive authority on the subject. In His Word, we learn some very important lessons about how love should behave. One of the most important things that He teaches us about love is the fact that love is a commitment, and this commitment is expressed, secured, and sustained through the right actions. Our Heavenly Father taught us this when He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die as a sacrifice for the sins of us all. This demonstrated how much God loves us. Romans 8:32(NLT) states, "Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?"

Anyone can tell you that their love for you is true, but how will you really know it? The answer to this question lies within the person’s actions. James 2:26 tells us that faith without works is dead. In other words, it isn’t enough to make a declaration about what you feel or believe. Anyone can do this. I can tell someone that I care for them all day long, but my words are dead as a doorknob if I never do anything to demonstrate that I care. Our actions convey the depth of our feelings. Our actions convey what we truly believe. God tells us in His Word that He loves us, and He backed it up by sending His only begotten Son to earth to save us. Through God’s loving example, He demonstrates that His love is true love, and His love is the kind we should demonstrate for ourselves and for others.

Self-indulgence is something that people living in modern times do really well. We live in a “ME” society, and no one can argue against that successfully. Most of us are taught to put ourselves before any other person. Society values financial wealth, power, and fame more than any other attributes, and we are taught to aspire and achieve those things at any cost. God tells us something different in 1Timothy 6:6(NLT). He says, “Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth.” As we can see, society and the world have a very different view of wealth than our Heavenly Father view. They do not value what He values, and they do not love what He loves. In God's eyes, living by the example of Christ and contentment with His blessings is great wealth. This is the way He sees it, and to be the men and women that He created us to be, we must see things His way as well.

God tells us in Philippians 2:3 that we’re not to be selfish, which means that the “all about me” attitude and mindset that many of us have must be kicked totally to the curb. We shouldn’t try to impress others with how much money we have or what kind of house, car, or clothes we wear. None of that matters to God. What matters to Him is that we are humble. We should never think that we’re better than anyone else, or that any person is less than another. God doesn’t have favorites, and He isn’t partial to one person over another. We must learn from His example.

I remember some years ago, I attended a gala for a non-profit organization. Their mission is to provide aid to the underserved in their local community. Along with donors and higher ups in the organization, many of the people they had helped were there that night. Some of them had wonderful success stories about how the organization’s assistance helped them get on their feet. In my opinion, this gala should have been all about them. They should have been celebrated, and to some extent they were, but I was shocked to see that as the food was being served at this gala, the top donors and employees were served first. This is not the way of Christ.

Loving ourselves isn’t all about pampering with spas and lavishness. Loving ourselves is loving God’s way. James 1:6(NLT) says, “But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.” Some of us have a divided mentality because we’re looking to the world for happiness. We’re looking to what the world offers to make us feel whole and special. God commands us to look to Him and Him alone. He is the Source of our joy and blessings, and we must never forget this.

Our behaviors sometime suggest that we think the world has the key to our happiness, but this could never be true. Jesus Christ commands us in Matthew 7:12(NLT), “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.” This is the truth that creates the space in our lives for God’s blessings to land. Many of us are feeling shaky and unsure, and our lives may be filled with uncertainly, but one thing is forever and always true, God’s love never fails. If we love God and put Him first in all things, we are loving ourselves the right way. If we love others with a heart that is unselfish and kind, we’re loving ourselves the right way. And if we put the welfare of others before ourselves continually, we are showing ourselves the greatest amount of love, and it will be returned to us in abundance. ■

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Loving Ourselves the Right Way”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

God Won’t Ever Leave You

 

2Corinthians 7:9-10(NLT) 
“9 Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way. 10 For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There's no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.” 

In 2Corinthians 7:9, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, rebuking them for not following the example of Christ in some areas of their Christian walk. They had gotten it wrong, and under the authority of Jesus Christ, Paul corrected them through his epistle(letters). After hearing they had made these errors, they were saddened, but making them sad was not Paul’s aim. He told them this, and he also said that he was glad their deep sorrow led to repentance. This deep and Godly sorrow they felt meant that their hearts were truly sorry for the sin they had committed against God’s Will and Word. They were inwardly convicted by the indwelling Holy Spirit and Paul was glad about this. He understood that change begins on the inside, in the mind and heart. When it is the kind of change that is caused by true repentance, it pleases God, and the impact on a person’s life is tremendous! 

Life is packed to the brim with experiences that range from euphoric highs to devastating lows. When things are good, we feel good, but when things are bad, sometimes we lose it. We don’t question Heavenly Father so much when life is going well, and sometimes we fail to be as thankful to Him for the good times as we should. But when things bottom out, and nothing goes the way it should, it baffles us. We want answers. Many of us go to God with “Why are You doing this to me?!!!” or “How could you let this happen?!!!” 

1John 1:5(NLT) declares, “God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.” Our Heavenly Father doesn’t punish or treat us unkindly. He is good all the time and all the time He is good! Yet, sometimes we question Him as if He has been the culprit of our sadness and troubles. He is not. This territory of trouble, darkness, disappointment, devastation, and death belong to the devil. Tricks, traps, and plots are weapons in his arsenal of chaos and confusion, and if we fail to see this, the devil will outsmart us.   

God warns us in 1Peter 5:8(NLT), “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” Earth is the battlefield of life, and we must know our opponent. God has given us the spiritual weapons of His Kingdom, and they are fail-proof. Our Heavenly Father would not have us to be ignorant of what we’re dealing with down here. We must know that satan is dastardly evil beyond anything we can imagine, but Jesus Christ assures us in 1John 4:4(NLT) that “the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.” 

The spirit who lives in the world is the devil. Jesus Christ calls him a murderer and the father of lies. God has given us the spiritual weaponry to outsmart the devil, and we must be confident that because of Jesus Christ, we are more than conquerors, as Romans 8:37 tells us. God has well-equipped us to walk in the victory that Jesus Christ won for us on the cross. Because of Christ, we are overcomers every moment of every day. 

As overcomers in Christ, we must never overlook the reality that it’s our responsibility to know WHO we’re praying to. We must pray to Heavenly Father for help, and it is incredibly important that we ask Him to open our eyes. He is not a God that hurts us, but a God that loves us. He is the One True Living God, and He has all power in His hands. Faith is required for our prayers, but you can’t have faith in God if you don’t know Him. Your brain will not allow you to trust in His goodness if you believe that He is trying to punish or destroy you. You’ll come up short every time if you are not convinced that God is a Rewarder to those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). 

Our Heavenly Father must never come second to anything or anyone. God allows us to make our own choices because He’s a loving father. He wants us to be full of joy, love, and peace. He wants us to have a successful life, and He’s given us the roadmap to a wonderful life in His Word, but the thing is, we don’t often use God’s roadmap to success. We think we can get there using our own opinions and decisions about what is right or wrong for us. That’s not a workable strategy for life.  

We can be very hard-headed and stubborn. God knows this, and He will allow us to try things out our way, because He will never violate our free-will choices and decisions. Doing things our way will inevitably land us in a place that is far less than optimum. Experience is the best teacher. We have to go through some things and figure it out the hard way that God’s way is always best. He is our Creator, and we are His children. We were created to be humble and loving before our God.

Whenever we’ve overstayed our welcome in a place, situation, or a relationship that isn’t helping us to spiritually grow, circumstances will become very toxic and uncomfortable. This should prompt us to seek change. We are creatures of habit, but sometimes, we are out of place with our thoughts and behaviors, because they are not aligned with God’s Word and His purpose for our lives. He didn’t design life to be full of difficulty and confusion, but the troublesome things of life can thrust us into a new way of thinking. Often, a new way of thinking is exactly what we need.

Jesus Christ teaches us in Luke 6:40(NLT), “Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher.” Becoming like Christ is God’s goal for us, and it is the greatest, most wonderful reality that we could ever hope to achieve. We were created to be led by God. The best thing we can do for ourselves is to surrender to Him, and to repent of the sin of trying to do things our way. We must know Him for who He is. He is Alpha and Omega, He is full of mercy, kindness, and grace. He will not leave us in times of trouble, but we must wake up to the extraordinary and magnificent truth of who God is and have faith in the awesome reality of His goodness and love for us all. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“God Won’t Ever Leave You”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

 

The Strength of God Within You

Isaiah 40:29(ESV)
“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.”

Because of his ministry and commitment to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God’s Word reveals that the Apostle Paul faced many hardships, including the threat of imprisonment and death. 2Corinthians 12:7 tells us that he was assaulted and tormented by a messenger of satan, which he referred to as a ‘thorn in the flesh’. Paul’s responsibility to the faith was huge, and as he progressed in ministry and notoriety, he had more than his fair share of enemies, but Paul didn’t allow any of this to keep him from carrying forth God’s work. He could have thrown in the towel and given up, but he had faith in God. He was confident that through the Holy Spirit, God’s strength was the foundation of his life, and it should be the foundation of our lives as well.

This is an especially important truth for those enduring the abuse of domestic violence. There are so many emotions involved in this struggle. We can be deeply devoted to the abuser, but terrified and angry at the same time. We desperately want to break free, but there’s a part of us that ultimately always gives in to what the abuser wants. These are controlling behaviors, and for many individuals in situations of domestic violence, this is their “thorn in the flesh.”

Whether this person is intimidating you by body blocking, sulking until you give in to what they want, or being menacing, mocking, and aggressive through their behavior and speech, it’s all an attempt to have dominance over you. To fall victim to this kind of treatment is not God’s Will for any individual, man or woman. Domestic violence and abuse is all about someone trying to have power over you. When you’re being controlled this way, despite your desire not to be, it is a sure indication that your mind and heart need to be nourished by the bread of God’s Word.  

We can’t walk and live in a truth we don’t know, but when we know better, we have the potential to be and do better. When someone we love isn’t treating us the way all God’s children should be treated, we need a change of heart and mind. Our faith in God needs to be increased, and Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing the Word of God.

Many of us don’t believe that if we get out of an abusive relationship, that we’ll be okay. The person that is being abused may not have a support system or financial backing in place, and this can make leaving seem more riskier than staying in the situation. This line of thinking seems rational to someone that is used to being robbed of their strength and power on a continuous basis. The mind of a victim remains blinded to possibility and confidence when it is not stimulated by faith in God.

Reading His promises and gaining knowledge of His love is transformative. 2Peter 1:3 (NLT) states, “3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.”  According to the brilliance and perfection of His intellect, love, and power, God has gifted us everything that is required to live to the fullest. Right now, at this very moment, you are packed to overflowing with His gifts. His strength is inside you. Coming to know God through Jesus Christ is the thing that reacquaints us with the wonder of who He created us to be. We become better acquainted with our truest and highest self by learning about Jesus Christ and by following his example. Then what’s on the inside begins to impact and change our outside reality.

Ephesians 2:8(NLT) states, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God.” All God’s promises points to the magnificence of His plan to have us participating with Him in the way He purposed. What exactly is the way God has purposed? It’s to fully walk in His power and strength, and to be fully confident in the depth, width, and breadth of His perfect love. Paul said in Romans 1:16 (NLT), “For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes.” Through Jesus Christ, God has succeeded in putting humanity right with Himself. He’s done it all for us, and He has made it our responsibility to believe, trust, and make ourselves comfortable in all that He has accomplished through His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

God desires us to exercise His power and strength in our lives so that we will no longer be blinded by fear and paralyzed by darkness and terror. His desire is that we walk in the liberty that Jesus Christ won for us. God’s grace and love is the winning strategy in life. So, it just makes sense that we should make it our life’s ambition to know Him more, because this is the way to put on more of His strength and wear it like a second skin.

He tells us in Isaiah 41:10(ESV), “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” If we lose sight of the greatness of God’s love and being, we will lose sight of all He has created us to be. We were not put on this earth to be blind-sighted, misled, and mistreated by a thorn in the flesh. We’re here to live in Christ through God’s love. To do this we must embrace God’s vision of who we are and get into His Word, because this is key to growing in faith and allowing the strength of God within to transform your life inside out.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

“The Strength of God Within You”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.■