It's hard to show love for others when you don't even have it for yourself.
Don't underestimate your potential, God who called you, He who makes us both want and do the work! His ability comes from the Lord, therefore it is written:
"Beat your plowshares
into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, “I am strong!"
Joel 3:10 NIV.
We are weak, alone. But with the Lord on our side we are strong because our strength comes from God. His grace is sufficient for us, His power is manifested in our weaknesses! When we are weak we are strong.
So cherish yourself! Jesus gave himself up on the cross and rose back from the dead for us - when we were still ungrateful sinners. He did this out of love and to give us an abundant life.
So what does it cost you… getting enough sleep, exercising, as far as possible having a healthy diet and drinking lots of water? Love yourself, that's not a sin!
Anyway, what is sin? Let's clarify, sin is everything that keeps us away from the only living and true God. Consequently, it brings us misery, affliction, fear, shame... Solely things that will harm others and harm us. Because there is only true joy in the Presence of Him who created us.
"We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them."
1 John 5:18 NIV.
For us Christians who no longer live in the voluntary and constant practice of sin, to sin is to miss the mark. We are new creatures, although at one time or another we all accidentally stumble and sin.
When we accept Jesus, we become children of God. For this reason, the good work was begun in us to form the character of Christ in everyone who received Him. We didn't become perfect, we still have flaws, the difference is that now we don't sin on purpose.
"19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.
20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;
23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[a] a slave to the law of sin."
Romans 7:19-25 NIV.
It was for freedom that Christ set us free, don't live feeling guilty and trying to punish yourself for something you didn't even intend to do. If you've already asked God for forgiveness, forgive yourself and go live His Will.
"8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,
4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.'
Romans 8:1- 4 NIV.
We want to do good, but sometimes trying to get it right, we miss the target. But the Bible instructs us to move forward, leaving the past behind.
"13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 3:13,14 NIV.
I'm not going to lie, I get furious at myself when I sin by accident. I get angry, thinking how I could do that.
Honestly, I hate it because I've always been a person who demands a lot from myself. Before meeting Jesus, I demanded perfection from myself so that no one could look at me and point fingers. Pride is my biggest fault, if this is also your case I will teach you how to overcome it:
Be humble! Have the courage and sincerity to ask God to change you, admit that you can't.
For me, humility is the ability to understand your limitations, accept them and have the courage to be sincere with God to ask to be transformed.
While I tried to mask my flaws and mistakes by saying that I could fix them myself, God did not help me for two reasons:
1- God doesn't act without your consent, if you don't want to and don't ask He doesn't. God does not force anyone to do anything.
2- This would increase my ego even more and I would humiliate and mistreat people even more. I was highly critical, indifferent, and boring.
But dear brothers, the day I opened my heart to God and was 100% honest, He answered me!
I asked Him to change me because I wasn't able to do that, after a few months I noticed my behavior improving day by day.
It's worth noting: it won't be something instantaneous, it's a process. It takes time, just have patience and faith, for whoever believes will see the Glory of God!
"Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
John 11:40 NIV.
Believe, wait and receive victory! And don't forget Perfect is God, for now we are imperfect in the process of improvement.
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