Today we are looking at loving (agape) ourselves the way God loves us.
In Matthew 22:39, Jesus said we should “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Implied in that statement is that if we don’t love ourselves, we don’t have a good basis for loving others.
1 Corinthians 13:4,5 (AMPC) defines the qualities of agape that we would want to apply to our love for ourselves.
Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].
Based on this, what to love ourselves doesn’t mean:
Exalting ourselves
Indulging ourselves
Being selfish or rude
What it does mean to love ourselves as God love us:
Patient with ourselves
Kind to ourselves
Not irritable with ourselves
Forgive ourselves of sins that have been confessed
Discipline ourselves
Don’t give up on ourselves
Full of hope
Day 3 Challenge: On Day 1 we used a picture of ourselves as a child to relate to God as our father. Today, take that picture and this time, in your mind, pick up the child and love her. Be a good friend to yourself throughout the day.