Self-Love, Self-Worth, Self-Esteem & Spirituality (2)

In my last post, I explained how important the role of balance is when it comes to love. Love, like I've said many times in the past is a verb. Meaning it involves action. You don't  fall into love, you make a conscious decision to love or walk in love. Yes, love at first sight is really just infatuation at it's best. But, I digress ( I really need to stop doing that).

Anyway, over the weekend,  I decided to do some more research. So, I took my Bible and some anointed books written by great men and women of God(Michelle Hammond,  Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Bishop Jakes,  to mention a few) and I went forth to find out what the Almighty says about us(humans) loving ourselves (the 3 S that are in the title) and I had a vague understanding about it before but now, now I am enlightened. When you truly seek, you really find (Matt.7:7).

Before I go on, I will like to emphasize one more time that my blog isn't a spiritual or religious blog. That aside, I, Adupeola, I do not partake in spiritual or religious arguments. So, if you're itching to get into one with me, I will not entertain you. For the sake of thoroughness, I will let you in on my reference points in the scriptures. Now, we can continue!

After my research, my belief that God has called us to live out 3 forms of love has been reinforced. This 3 forms of love work together and they can only do that if they are in balance. You need to evaluate yourself to ensure that all 3 are well balanced and adjust where necessary. They are:

1. Love God: We are told many times in the Bible both in the Old and New Testaments to love God. It was the first commandment. The verse that truly tells us how to love Him is Deut.6:5(You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength) Jesus went further in the New testament to repeat this commandment and then name it the greatest commandment in Matt.22:37-38(Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment).

How then do we express our love to God?  Through words?  Yes and no. Yes, because out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks(Matt.12:34). No, because words can at best only ever be shallow. Actions speak louder than words afterall. The best way to show our love for God is through obedience. My pastor once said if you love someone, you blindly follow them. You always want to make them happy. You trust them completely and totally. We have faith in them and in their promises. We make God happy by obeying Him. My favorite author says, "yes, we don't always want to obey God's rules because we're human and we all have a bit of rebellion in us. But the moment we start to understand that God is not a wicked dictator but a loving Father, we begin to get that these rules are for our own good". (Paraphrased by me). The more we love God, the more we want to know Him and follow His commandments. The only reason we know how to love is because He first loved us(1 John 4:19)

2. Love Yourself: Honestly,  I don't know why people can't believe that God wants us to love ourselves. When you love someone, you want them to feel good about themselves right? And God certainly does love us, enough to send His Son to die in our place. Jesus in Matt.22:39 pointed out the second greatest commandment; And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ This is just a matter of semantics to me. It's quite obvious that He said we are to love others AS ourselves.

That means the standard for loving others is the way we love ourselves as individuals. You shouldn't love others at the expense of yourself. Besides, I doubt one can give what one doesn't have. If you can't find a way to love yourself how will you ever find a way to love others most of which will be complete strangers? 'AS' in Jesus' statement was used in the adverb form. 'AS', in that form, is used in comparisons to refer to the extent or degree of something.

In essence, He was saying the same degree at which you love yourself is the same degree at which you should love others.

3. Love Others: You cannot claim to love God and not love others. God is love and for that sole reason,  the best way to keep a relationship growing with Him is to walk in love. God gifted us with His love and we in return must gift others with this love.

Again, we go back to the second greatest commandment where we are told to love others just as much as we love ourselves. If we stop showing God's love to others, our walk with Him might become stagnated. Whenever I am moved in my spirit to help someone else or show love to someone else(even though this is against my human nature), and I comply, I feel a surge of happiness within me. I can honestly say that I'm probably much more happy than the person I showed love to.

While we were yet sinners, He loved us. So, why must we discriminate on who gets our love and who doesn't? I know it's not easy. Even though the spirit is willing the flesh is oftentimes weak(Mark 14:38). We all have different temperaments or a combination of temperaments that makes up our characters. But we are told to aspire to manifest the fruits of the Spirit. God knows we're just human and can do nothing of our own might. He understands. That's why we're assured that His strength is made perfect in our weakness.

Of course it doesn't end here...but I promised to make it all short and concise...

To be continued...

(Definitions culled from Wikipedia)

(Scriptures are from NKJV)

(Quotes from Michelle Hammond and Joyce Meyer)