Happy New Year!
In this first week of 2019, it is natural to look back to what the last year brought you and forward to what the New Year may become. Even though I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions anymore, I still feel the need to make some changes in my life.
Right now, the Lord is challenging me on what living loved by Him looks like in the new year and that it is essential to my life.
I don’t know about you but I am easily distracted from what is essential by what is urgent, what needs to get done today to get ready for tomorrow and what others need me to do for them.
God has made us to love. He created us for it and it comes from a place of love. We take care of others because we love them. Jesus came to restore us to love (and to be loved).
When Jesus was asked what the most important command was in the Jewish Scriptures (what we call the Old Testament), he replied:
“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Matthew 22:36-38 NLT
Love God with all of you and love people as you love yourself.
He didn’t say, “love people before you love yourself” or “take care of others before you take care of yourself” but “love others as you love yourself”.
How good are you at taking care of yourself? Of loving yourself?
I know too many women who are their own worst critics and can find nothing about themselves that they can love…including myself.
I know too many women who take care of everyone around them but don’t take care of themselves spiritually, physically or emotionally…including myself.
This is something that the Lord has been dealing with me for a long time and I have received deep soul healing from Him. I have learned how important it is to take care of myself and nurture a love for the amazing creation God has made me to be. I have taught it, preached and prayed it over hundreds of women. And I still have lots of room for it to continue to grow in me.
God created you in love to be loved and live loved.
Jesus came to heal the broken heart in you and the broken mirror the world presents to you.
Self-hatred is not okay with God. He paid a heavy price on the cross to have a thriving and very real relationship with you because you are precious to Him.
You are precious to those around you. It’s time for you to discover and celebrate what is precious in you.
It’s time to start loving yourself as God loves you. To take care of yourself according to the value you hold – you are precious to Jesus.
I want to remind you that you are loved.
Not because of what you look like.
Not because of what you do.
Not because of what you are good at.
You are loved because of who you are: You are God’s daughter.
Your identity comes from God – no one else.
The more you know who you are and who He has created you to be, the more you are free to live in the truth of it.
You are chosen, accepted, embraced and empowered to live it this year.
What does “living loved” look like in your life this year?
What do you love about who God has made you to be?
What will you celebrate about yourself this year?
How will you take care of yourself this year?
-Cindy Grasso