Love Yourself

I was looking up a word for my daily devotion and came across Isaiah 1:5-9. It is a question that is asked of the people of Israel by the Lord. The word is alternative and it means choice. I am going to use the New Living Translation Holy Bible. Here are the verses and what they mean to me.

Isaiah 1:5-9
"Why do you continue to invite punishment? Must you rebel forever? Your head is injured, and your heart is sick. You are sick from head to foot-covered with bruises, welts, and infected wounds-without any ointments or bandages. Your country lies in ruins, and your cities are burned. As you watch, foreigners plunder your fields and destroy everything they see. Jerusalem stands abandoned like a watchman's shelter in vineyard or field after the harvest is over. It is as helpless as a city under siege. If the Lord Almighty had not spared a few of us, we would have been wiped out as completely as Sodom and Gomorrah."

I did not grow up in a Christian home as far as I was sent to church and read Bible stories but my parents did not go to church with me. It was not until I was twenty that I was ready to hear the gospel message and the Holy Spirit was working in my heart to receive Christ as my Savior.

Because of several kinds of abuse in my childhood and even after marriage I tend to not love myself as I should. And when it was talking about hurting oneself I harm my body by rebelling against authority and also over eating and eating the wrong things.

The Lord has been showing me that He created me and that I am wonderfully made and my whole life is planned out by Him. Now the things that happened to me were allowed to happen but it grieves my God that they were done. They were done by people who did not know the Lord. It was their choice, not mine to do the things that they did. So now I need to put those things behind me and go forward. Yes, the Lord can use what happened to me to help others and He has done so. But I still need to work on not rebelling against authority, am doing better, and also love myself and my God enough not to want to further hurt my body by eating the wrong things.

I know there are many men and women in the world that have these feelings about not loving themselves. And I am the first one to say that by us doing this we have turned our backs on God like His people Israel. So I am asking those that read this if your do not love yourself, I don't mean pride, but truly love yourself for how God made you, confess this to Him and ask for His cleansing, and repent, and give yourselves over to God. Then He can heal you and can truly become all that He wants you to be. Because if we can not love ourselves and God how can we love others?