Am I Supposed to Love Myself?

(The following is an excerpt from Slaying Your Giants.)

To love self or not to love self. That is the question. Jesus said, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 22:39). He also said, "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26).

These two apparently contradicting verses, both spoken by Jesus, make me wonder, "Should I love me, or love me not? If God loves me, shouldn't I love me?" And here's a bonus question. If Jesus commanded me to love everyone, why does He now tell me to hate?

No, Jesus wasn’t commanding us to despise mom and dad. The biblical word “hate” doesn't always mean to “cease loving.” When Jesus says you must hate your relatives and yourself, He means that you must favor Him above everyone else. Christ wants to lead you, rather than letting anyone else control your life. However, some people wrongly believe they must hate themselves—the very souls Jesus created and died for. If that were true, you should want to go to hell, which would be the ultimate hatred of self. Obviously, that can’t be right. You would be fulfilling Satan’s will, not God’s.

A prison chaplain once told me, “Do you know why those prisoners committed their crimes? It’s because they hate themselves. And if they hate themselves, how can they love others? If they don’t have respect for themselves, why would they respect anyone else and their property? So it doesn’t bother them to steal or kill. They don’t love their neighbors because they don’t love themselves.”

Attaining a healthy self-image requires that you see yourself as God sees you—as a valuable person He created and loves. It’s important to understand that “self” can mean a couple of things. It can mean “the person God created you to be” which is good, or it can mean “having a selfish attitude” which is bad. When Jesus said to hate your own life, He meant to hate selfishness, not the person God created you to be. The Lord wants you to love yourself as His creation and child, but to hate your selfish attitudes.

www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com

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Don't Stop Praying (The Unjust Judge)

After we’ve been praying for something for a long time and the answer hasn’t come, we might conclude that God isn’t listening. Sometimes He will not answer because we are asking for something that will not be good for us. But at other times we quit praying too soon, which forfeits what we are praying for. Jesus told a parable explaining why we must continue to pray.

Luke 18:1 “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.” 

Jesus is the one who answers our prayers—and He is teaching us about how to pray and about how prayer works.  First He says to pray at all times.  Do you realize that some things will not happen unless you pray? Otherwise, prayer would serve no purpose.  The problem is we only pray when we need something and not “at all times.”

Second, it’s easy to get discouraged and lose heart. He knows that when we don’t see the answer to our prayers that we can be tempted to quit praying.  Notice that Jesus is the one who told us to keep praying, even when it looks like nothing is happening. 

Luke 18:2-3 "In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, 'Give me legal protection from my opponent.'” 

There are three reasons why you help people. One is because you fear God, and another reason is you respect others.  Jesus sets up this parable by eliminating the two primary reasons to help her.  That only leaves one reason left.

Luke 18:4-5 "For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, 'Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.'"  

The reason the ungodly judge gave in to her was because she wouldn’t stop bringing her request to him!  Do you understand what He’s trying to tell us?  That’s the kind of persistence we should have when we bring our requests before God.  Persistence is a necessary ingredient in faith and gives us the determination to keep praying until the answer comes. 

Don’t give up praying for your loved ones or for something else that’s on your heart. Jesus said that your prayers are making a difference in bringing it to pass.

www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com

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The "Present Time Zone" (Stress)

In the devotionals below, I talked about the “Past Time Zone” and the “Future Time Zone” in your mind.  The present is the only place where you can live.  However, if you keep thinking about all the things that you need to do today, you will get “stressed out.”  

Martha in the Bible is someone who was always stressed-out. Jesus said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary" (Luke 10:41-42).  She wasn’t properly managing the “time zones” in her mind. 

She was worried because her mind got stuck in the future, and she was bothered (stressed-out) because she was thinking about too many things in the present.  He says, “Martha, you keep thinking about things that I didn’t call you to do.  Only one thing is necessary.  Concentrate on what I want you to do.”

We usually get stressed out by taking on too many responsibilities.  In the old west, cowboys would put their branding irons in the campfire to heat them up so they could mark their cattle.  If they put too many irons in the fire, it would put out the fire. Too many irons in the fire will put out your fire, too!  You don’t need to do everything—but only the things God has called you to do. 

How can you reduce your stress?

1.Control what you think about.  Do you realize that you can choose to NOT think about some things?

2. Get more organized. Many people are stressed-out because they have no structure in their lives. They bounce around like a ball in a pin-ball machine, reacting to whatever happens to them. Write down the things you need to do for the day and prioritize them.

3. Handle one task at a time.  Don’t try to do five things at once. Accomplish the highest priority task first, then the next, and so on.

4. Simplify your life. Jesus said, “Only one thing is necessary.” He didn’t say “Four hundred things are necessary.”  What is that “one thing”?  It’s seeking to hear God and please Him in all that you do.

www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com

Coming in April 2013: Slaying Your Giants by Kent Crockett (Hendrickson Publishers)

The "Future Time Zone" in Your Mind

In the devotional below I talked about the “time zones” in your mind and how your thoughts can drift to the past.  Your mind can also travel in the other direction to the future.  Worry sends your mind ahead so you’ll agonize about the horrible things that might happen. Maybe you’re thinking, “The future scares me.  What if there’s a world war?  What if the economy collapses?”

Worry is the belief that the worst will happen to you.  Hope is the belief that the best will happen to you.  Which one do you think God wants you to do—worry or hope? Jesus specifically told His followers to not worry.  He said, “Do not keep worrying.” (Luke 12:29)

Studies show that 92% of things we worry about will never happen.  I know what you’re thinking.  “What about the other 8%?”  The other 8% will either not be as bad as you think, or God will give you the grace to get through them.  That takes care of everything you’re worried about.

If you are worried, it’s because you’re not trusting God to be in control of your circumstances and take care of you.  You cannot worry about the future and trust God at the same time.  Here are 3 things reasons why you can look forward to the future.

1. God exists in the future.  God is “I AM” the eternally existent one (Ex. 3:14), which means He is not bound by time and He exists in the future.  Tomorrow when you get there, God will be waiting there to welcome you.  It doesn’t matter what the world is like tomorrow.  If God is there, you don’t need to worry.

2. God has good plans for your future.  The prophet Jeremiah said, “‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope’” (Jeremiah 29:11).  He has plans for His followers, too.  We don’t know what they may be, but we do know they are good plans to give us hope.  Hope for tomorrow displaces worry.

3. God promises to take care of those who put Him first. Jesus made this promise: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).  If you will seek Him as your highest priority, He promises to provide all your needs. 

My book The Sure Cure for Worry will be published in August 2013, which will explain why people worry and will give solid evidence that God is in control and can be trusted completely.

www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com

Coming in April 2013: Slaying Your Giants by Kent Crockett (Hendrickson Publishers)

The "Time Zones" in Your Mind, Part 1

Do you realize that you have “time zones” in your mind?  Although you live only in the present, your mind can drift to another time zone—either to the past or to the future. Paul said, "One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:13-14).

THE “PAST TIME ZONE”

The past does not exist anymore, except in your memory.  I grew up in New Orleans and in my mind I can see myself walking through all the rooms in that house.  In 2005 that house was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.  The house doesn't exist anymore—but it’s still there in my memory.  In reality that house is gone but in my imaginations, I can still go there—if I choose to think about it.  

In the same way, your past doesn't exist anymore, but in your imaginations you can still go there. It’s not wrong to briefly visit the past to reminisce about good memories, which can make you thankful.  But far more people climb into their mental time machine and travel to the past time zone to think about the horrible memories in the past.  If you dwell on your hurtful past, you will become bitter, or will feel guilty, or will sink into depression, or will fume in anger.  Calling up bad memories will affect your mental and spiritual health in the present.

LETTING GO OF YOUR PAST

Just like you can hold on to things with your hands, you can also hold on to things with your spirit. To let go of the past, you must let go of what your heart is holding on to.

If you have accepted Jesus Christ into your life and still feel guilty about past sins, trust this verse: “He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions” (Col. 2:13).

If you were hurt by someone in your past, you must forgive and let go. “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just at God also forgave you in Christ” (Eph. 4:32).

If you regret something you did or didn’t do in your past, remember that God will accept you in your present situation and lead you from where you are right now if you will surrender to Him.  “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

Next time I’ll talk about the “Future Time Zone.” 

www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com 

Coming in April 2013: Slaying Your Giants by Kent Crockett (Hendrickson Publishers)

Selling Cracked Pots

The apostle Paul wrote, “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” (1 Tim. 1:5). A sincere faith is a faith that's genuine.  It’s not fake.

The word sincere comes from two Latin terms sine and cere meaning “without wax.”  In those days, sometimes potters would accidentally crack their vessels they were making. If they were crooked, they would try to deceive the buyer by patching the crack with wax, painting over it, and then selling it.  After the people took the jar home and set it in the hot sun, the wax would melt and it would start leaking.

When honest potters cracked a jar they would throw it away.  When they made a pot in perfect condition they would stamp it "Sine Cere" —without wax.  They guaranteed that their jars didn’t have cracks in them and that they weren't patched with wax. What the seller made was genuine. It wasn’t a fake.  

When Paul says he wants your faith to be sincere, he means having a faith without any cover-ups. What you see is what you get.  It's not a patched-up fake.  Do people see a sincere faith in you? 

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It's How You Look at It

While Timmy was playing in the yard a bee stung him on the hand. He ran to his mother, crying, "I hate bees! I wish God had never made them." His mom put some ointment on the sting and said, "Do you want some toast and honey to cheer you up?"

Timmy perked up. "Yeah, I love honey!"

“Did you know that it takes bees to make honey?" she asked.

He looked at the honey and said, "I never realized there was a good side to bees!"

Nearly everything in life has a good side and a bad side, and everyone gets to choose what they will focus on. It’s easy for us to always look for what’s wrong. It takes more effort to look for what’s good and positive in every situation.

Paul said, “Whatever is true…honorable…right…pure…good…anything worthy of praise let your mind dwell on these things” (Phil. 4:8). If you will discipline yourself to control your thoughts (and it will take discipline), you discover the secret of happiness. I challenge you to spend today finding the positive side of every situation and thanking God for each thing you see. Doing this every day will change your life.

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