The power of self -love (Part 2)
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39
When we lack self-love, we lack identity. When we lack identity, we look for something to fill the void. A lack of self-love makes us uncomfortable with intimacy or makes it hard for us to receive love. Without self-love, people may jump to counterfeit or lust-filled experiences but struggle to cultivate deep relationships.
A person may become so accustomed to the absence of love that they may live with it using false coping skills. The presence of love makes life clear, simple, and uncluttered, making it easier for us to experience God's grace. A lack of love, however, makes life more complicated and confusing. It is the root cause of deception, suffering, and bondage.
We are facing real resistance from the enemy, who wants us to stay away from God's love so we won't be able to enjoy an all-loving God at all times. The enemy's greatest lie is that "God doesn't love you.” In reality, God is love, but Satan is the opposite and hates us with great passion. He wants to separate our love from God and put us in a "love deficit" state, so he constantly tortures us with "the battle of the self”.
Instead, we should become our own best friends, accepting and loving ourselves unconditionally. However, the enemy keeps an accusatory voice in our heads and we become the worst inner critics. As a result, it proves a successful strategy since the absence of self-love weakens us, and prevents us from seeing our true value, the power and beauty within us.
Discerning lies and the enemy's voices is so important, so I will expose various self-love struggles in the coming posts, especially self-hatred, self-rejection, unworthiness, and shame. It may be that we have unknowingly been conditioned to live as enemies to ourselves all these years, unaware of the enemy's fierce but subtle assault.
A self-defeating self-talk such as “No one loves me.”, “What’s wrong with me?”, “People don’t care.”, “I am not good enough.” Among the many lies we tell ourselves, perfectionistic and performance-based mentalities are also common. I recently had a vivid dream from God in which I overcompensated for my lack of self-love by striving to perform for God.
It was the dream that drove me to realize I needed to stop all these tendencies. It led us to discover this truth: "Because God loves me, I love myself."
Blessing prayer: May you expose the lies and free us from our battles so that we can walk in love and freedom. Reveal your heart to me so I can experience you deeper. In Jesus’ name, Amen
