Your calling is to fulfill the royal law of love as given to us in this Scripture: “You must love and value your neighbor as you love and value yourself!” James 2:8 (TPT)
Saying, “I love myself!” carries a negative connotation today. Yet the Bible says it’s essential that we love ourselves. Why?
We can only value others to the extent that we value ourselves. After all, we can’t give what we don’t have. So, the more we understand how much God loves us, the easier it is for us to see value in others and extend that same love to them.
The problem is, we often mistakenly pin our value to things like bigger paycheques, brand-name clothes or a degree behind our name. Unfortunately, the more we poke around outside of our relationship with God to feel whole, special or loved, the more we can struggle with emptiness and heartache.
For example, a rock star can leap on stage and deliver an incredible guitar solo to a raving crowd. Yet when the show’s over, he goes back to his room and starts cutting lines of coke. Why? Because deep within himself, he knows the fans don’t love him—they just enjoy his musical talent.
He’s sure that if they knew his deepest, darkest thoughts or what he’s really like, they wouldn’t love him. Eighty-thousand adoring, screaming fans can’t boost his self-worth. That’s because other people can’t determine our self-worth—God does.
C.S. Lewis said, “For to have been born in God’s thought and then made by God is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking.” Meditate on the magnitude of that statement!
You hold incredible worth because God made you. And as you learn to see your value the way God does, loving others becomes infinitely easier.