Lord Jesus, what do You want to say to me about the way You love Yourself and the way You want me to love myself?
I want to define some terms about what we’re talking about. The good thing is called Agreeing with God. That is the good form of self-love. The bad thing is called Disagreeing with God. That is the bad thing, whether it manifests as a form of self-love or as self-hatred.
Saying, “I’m worth more than other human beings” is Disagreeing with God. It is pride and it is sin. Saying “I am worthless and I hate myself” is also Disagreeing with God. It is the same sin. It is still pride–at least, if you know what I say about you it is, because it is saying you know better than I do.
Agreeing with God is what Adam and Eve did before the fall when they would have said “YES! HALLELUJAH! I AM VERY GOOD!!! AMEN!” and that is good and the goal for “self-image” as an image-bearer of God, dependent and created and glorious.
You are dependent on Me to tell you who and what you are because you are not self-creating nor self-defining. No one gets to name himself or herself. That is pride. The only appropriate self-concept is to submit to what I say about you, not to write your own, whether good or evil, positive or negative.
Loving your neighbor is also agreeing with what I say about him or her, which is why listening to Me to hear My thoughts about and heart towards a person (which is sometimes called by the grandiose name of “prophecy’) can help you to love so much.
After Adam and Eve fell, they were afraid to come to Me and hear what I said about them so that they could agree with it. They just ran and hid. That is the next part of the story coming. There is a long story before we get back to you agreeing with Me “YES! I AM VERY GOOD!” But you know how the story ends and what I did to get you there, to restore humanity “in Christ.”
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