Are You Too Hard on Yourself?

Christians have a hard time loving themselves. Sometimes they don’t even like themselves. It is easy to understand why when we are tempted to compare ourselves to a perfect God. If we maintain that approach, we will always be down on ourselves. We can never make the mark. Perfection just isn’t in our DNA.

The good news is this isn’t how God expects us to view ourselves. Yes, we are sinners and always will be. Hopefully and prayerfully we should each grow in Christ. If we are truly born-again Christians, we will reduce the amount of sinning we do over time, but we will never arrive at perfection this side of heaven.

I used to really struggle with believing God accepted me as I am and I was very hard on myself. I was rarely happy because guilt filled my life. Trying to be perfect is exhausting not to mention impossible. With this mindset I was always failing. The Lord Jesus has helped me to biblically adjust how I look at myself.

Here are a couple of Scriptures that really address the problem and helped me understand God’s perspective. First, is Colossians 3:3: “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. My life, your life, is hidden in Christ“. When God sees you or me He sees Christ. He sees perfection. What’s not to like? It’s not what I did or didn’t do. It is what Jesus did.

Another powerful lesson is learned in Acts 10:9ff. Cornelius had sent for Peter. As his men were traveling to meet Peter, Peter goes up on a rooftop and has a vision. Scripture says:

“On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.”

The lesson is that God has cleansed us and we best not consider ourselves unholy. That would be calling God a liar.

Re-run from an earlier article.