Loving Yourself Made Easy

By Alexandra Copeland

Loving ourselves in a healthy way ought to be a goal for every living person. It can’t be lost on any of us that this is becoming increasingly challenging to do. One of the reasons for this is because so many of us are not quite sure who we are, whose we are, and what we’re placed on this earth to do. There are some that believe the way to demonstrate self-love is to place all their focus on the body. They become physically fit but are sometimes spiritually and intellectually lacking. Others fancy themselves as intellectuals, studying everything they can get their hands on, but lack the sensitivity and depth to make the world a better place; they’re simply hoarders of knowledge. Then there are practitioners of theology who have a great deal of opinions on who God is, but the manifestation of His love demonstrated through His power totally eludes them. We’ve seen all of these in some form or another, and none model for us a self-love that mirrors truth.

1Thessalonians 5:23 tells us that our Heavenly Father is a God of peace, and He desires to make us holy in every way. This verse also tells us that we are three-part beings; spirit, soul, and body. God makes it clear to us that He expects us to keep every part blameless until the Lord Jesus Christ comes again. Heavenly Father would not tell us to carry out a task of which we’re incapable. If He told us to do something, He expects us to get it done.

The spirit part of us is not the Holy Spirit. Many people confuse this. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. The Godhead bodily is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He created us to be three parts as well; spirit, soul, and body. We were made in His image. It can be no secret that to love ourselves according to God’s truth is to love all parts of us—no part being left out. To do this, it stands to reason that we need to understand the function of all our parts. Without understanding the functions, there is too much room left for confusion. This confusion leads to chaos, and there’s too much of that in today’s society. A great many of us are walking around confused about our identities and several other things. This isn’t God’s Will. 1Corinthians 14:33 tells us that He’s not the author of confusion, but of peace. It’s this peace that we should be seeking, and it can only be obtained by pursuing Him.

Once we are spiritually born-again, our human-spirit is recreated. 2Corinthians 5:17 says we are new creations and the old life we had is gone. Our human-spirit is made perfect through Jesus Christ. It is so perfect in truth that the Holy Spirit can take up residence in our human-spirits; this is where he lives. Romans 8:16 says that the Holy Spirit joins with our human-spirit and affirms that we are God’s children. The soul and body are not recreated. God has placed them under our free-will agency, which means the soul and body are under our self-government. We control them and God will not overstep the gift of free-will that He’s given us. So you and I have the distinct honor, privilege, and responsibility to align our souls and bodies with the Will of God. We submit our will to His Will, for this is our purpose.

Our souls and bodies hunger for this alignment, and some of us are starving them. We’re starving them of the love of Christ that they were created to be nourished by. Through the Apostle Paul, Ephesians 3:19(NLT) tells us God’s hope. This verse says, “May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”  The love of Christ is a reality too potent to comprehend fully in one lifetime. It requires an eternity. But even the small fraction of it that can be known will complete us with the fullness of life and power that comes from our Creator, Heavenly Father.

Romans 8:35 says that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. His love holds us together. In and of ourselves, we don’t have what it takes to love ourselves fully. We’ll focus on one part and leave the others wanting, but God has placed His Spirit inside of us. The Spirit knows everything that can be known about our lives. He knows our destiny and purpose. He knows what we need and will fulfill that need continually as we trust God, seek His Will for our lives, and walk by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. So loving God through a moment by moment decision to embrace our relationship with Him is the best way to love ourselves, and nothing could be easier or more phenomenal than that.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. 

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.