Your heavenly Father loves you so very much! He sings over you (Zeph. 3:17). He longs to gather us close (Matt. 23:37). He gave the best He had—Jesus—to make sure you, personally, could be with Him forever (John 3:16). Clearly, you matter to Him.

The issue is many of us don’t love ourselves the way He loves us. God looks at us and sees dearly loved children He wants to be with, but all we see is our faults and shortcomings.

“Wow. Why am I like this?”

“I can’t stand this about myself.”

“I make so many mistakes!”

“Who would want to date me? Nobody.”

“Everything about me is broken and awful.”

The Secret to Loving Yourself

There is a secret to loving yourself well. You need to believe what Jesus is saying more than you believe what anyone else is saying, including yourself.

Learning to love yourself is definitely in the Proverbs 3:5 category—you can’t lean on your own understanding to do it. You have to lean on His understanding, and He says you are His beloved child.

Trust Yahweh with all your heart,
    and do not rely on your own understanding. (Prov. 3:5 NOG) 

5 Ways to Change How You See Yourself

God knows you aren’t perfect, and He chose you anyway. Here are five simple ways you can love yourself this week. 

1. Read Psalm 139, and journal what God thinks of you based on that psalm. “You know me better than anyone, and You do not reject me. Your thoughts toward me are precious.”  

2. Ask God to show you what He thinks about you—and then believe Him. One of the best ways you can honor and show love to God is by believing what He says to you, even when it feels too good to be true (see Heb. 4:2).

3. Choose to give God your shame and self-rejection. Instead of dwelling on a past event that makes you feel like a terrible person, cast that event on the Lord the same way you would a burden (Ps. 55:22). The next time shame or self-rejection tries to speak to you about that event, say no—because you’ve given it to the Lord.

4. Don’t be super critical toward yourself. Learn to be gentle and forgiving toward yourself instead. When He makes you clean, you are really clean. You can trust Him in this (1 John 1:9).

5. Stop listening to the enemy. His voice sounds like fear, shame, and condemnation, but the voice of your heavenly Father sounds like peace (Judg. 6:24). 

Beloved child of God, you are so precious to your Father! He loves you more than you know, and He has so many good things in store for you. Most important, He has Himself for you. It doesn’t matter how much you’ve messed up or feel like a failure—He is with you to pour all His love on you.

Do you want to see more kingdom marriages—among your friends, in your church, and in your city? Join us for online prayer on Monday, April 1, at 8:00 p.m. God has amazing plans for marriages and families, and we are so happy we get to work with Him in prayer!

Your heavenly Father loves you more than you realize! For more about His amazing, unending love, check out Becoming the One by Salomé Roat. Click here to learn more. The book is also available in Spanish.