If you’re constantly living your life for others, and are not living for yourself first, it is no wonder that you do not feel entirely happy in your life. It is a complicated and yet simple truth, that you cannot love someone else if you do not love yourself, at the same time, when you do not love yourself, you cannot grow.
In order to truly feel a sense of fulfillment in anything you do, you need to place God first in order to gain direction and then, just like with all things, you must begin with yourself! The Bible verse below according to Matthew 22:37-40, clearly states that you need to love your neighbor as yourself. It is not rocket science, even the second commandment according to the Bible already assumes you love yourself. Why would you not? You’re perfectly made and have been set apart from every other person in the entire world. You have been given a distinct fingerprint, and God has marked you to be unlike any other.
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church. (Ephesians 5:29)
Where do you place yourself in your list of priorities? If you’re not in them, then you might slowly be draining yourself to non-existence. If you do not look after your health and become sick, you will not be of much use to your family or your company. If you do not make an effort to heal your emotional wounds, you will react or possibly inflict others instead of ministering to them. If you do not feed yourself spiritually, you will not have the spiritual resources to share with others. If you do not get sufficient rest, you will get grumpy and lash out on those around you. If you do not feel confident about yourself, you cannot expect or wonder why others are not confident about you.
It is important to be self-aware, if you notice you’re not good enough care of yourself, or loving yourself, make a change. Life is about growing yourself as a person just as the world around you develops and changes with every season that passes. Simultaneously, when we begin to comprehend God’s forgiveness and love, and when we deeply know he loves us, we don’t need to focus on loving ourselves, we will begin to love ourselves naturally, as God would want us to.
When Self-Love becomes Dangerous
You must strive to strike a balance in everything you set out to do, in loving God, loving yourself and loving others. There are those who doom themselves because they do not love themselves, and there are those who love themselves too much that they become self-absorbed, egoistic and unloving to others. The Scripture below in the Bible, tells us that we should have nothing to do with such people, and of course we should never allow ourselves to become the type of person that God would want others to stay away from.
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
Be a Role Model
Model how to take care of yourself, so that the people under your influence will take care of themselves. While there are those that are self-absorbed, there are some Christians that insist on putting themselves at the bottom of their priority list. This springs from a false and dangerous piety. We are in a much better position to serve others when our basic needs are met.
God has given us only ONE LIFE to live. This life is a precious gift and holy responsibility. God wants us to live it for Him with joy, passion, and fulfillment. But for this to happen, we need to take care of ourselves.
And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching. (Titus 2:7)
“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” (John 15:4)
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.” (Matthew 5:13)
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Kim Yung CM
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