Through the Eyes of Love

Ephesians 3:17b-19

…that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (ESV)

Most of us don’t want to hurt someone we love, but we talk bad about ourselves all of the time.  Have you ever thought about how it affects those we love when we speak unkindly about ourselves?  When we call ourselves stupid, or get extremely upset and irritated at ourselves.  We often have more patience with loved ones than we do with ourselves.  Think about how you feel when someone you love talks bad about themselves in front of you.  When someone I love says that they are “stupid” or some such comment, it hurts me.  Because I know they’re not and I want them to know and believe that, too.  However, I also know that I am very guilty of this myself, and it makes me wonder how it makes God feel.  God loves us with a deeper love than humans could ever understand, and he created each one of us uniquely.  If we call ourselves stupid, then we are calling God’s creation stupid and that hurts him because he loves us and he wants us to know how much we are loved and how valuable we are.

Ephesians talks about God’s love being beyond our understanding.  We live in a three-dimensional world, but God’s love is four-dimensional; greater than anything our human minds can comprehend.  When we say we love someone, it will never mean as much as it means when God tells us that he loves us.  So if we hurt when our loved ones speak unkindly about themselves, think how much more God must hurt when we speak unkindly of ourselves.  Yes, it’s good to feel convicted when we’ve done wrong and to seek to do differently in the future, but if we make a mistake or if we repent, God wants us to acknowledge the grace that he’s given us; he doesn’t want us to beat ourselves up.

So my challenge to you is to treat yourself like you treat the ones you love.  With grace, kindness, mercy, and love.  Think of how God truly sees you, and think of how much it hurts him when you don’t see yourself through the eyes of love.