Psalms 139:14 HCSB I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well.
Today I want to share with you several simple yet profound truths related to this verse. O, how I long to experience more freedom from the encumbrances of this world, and to experience "the joy of the Lord" more frequently! And I bet you do as well. I believe that the following truths are foundational to doing just that. Because of the importance of these truths, I encourage you to get alone with God very soon and ponder the following passages, asking God to speak to you.
Truth #1 -- God delights in you:
Proverbs 3:12 NASB For whom the LORD loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.
Psalms 35:27 NASB Let them shout for joy and rejoice, who favor my vindication; And let them say continually, "The LORD be magnified, Who delights in the prosperity of His servant."
Psalms 37:23 NASB The steps of a man are established by the LORD, And He delights in his way.
Zephaniah 3:17 ESV The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.
Truth #2 -- God's design of you is "very good"… in fact, "wonderful, great, marvelous":
Genesis 1:27, 31 NASB God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (31) God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Psalms 139:14 HCSB I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well.
Psalms 111:2 NASB Great are the works of the LORD; They are studied by all who delight in them.
Revelation 15:3 NASB And they *sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations!
Pause and let these 2 truths sink into your soul. These truths can truly transform us. And they are the gateway to a powerful concept that we have often heard, but perhaps have seldom fully grasped:
Matthew 22:37-39 NASB And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' (38) "This is the great and foremost commandment. (39) "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' ”
Matthew Kelly makes the following thought-provoking observation about loving your neighbor as yourself:
“In these lines, Jesus invites us to a total love of God and a generous love of neighbor, but He assumes that we already love ourselves…
“I am not speaking of the love of self that is blind and boastful, but rather the love of self that acknowledges that we are weak and wounded, and at the same time we are amazing children of God. It’s that unique combination of humility and gratitude that allows us to acknowledge (even if we don’t understand it) that God loves us deeply, [and] that He loves us for a reason…
“Our inability to love ourselves may be one of the biggest problems in the Church today. For until we learn to love ourselves as God wants us to, our ability to love others will be limited and deformed. When we love ourselves we become less interested in what others think about us and more interested in what God thinks. When we love ourselves we don’t do things just to get noticed or praised or accepted…
“A healthy sense of self-love is essential to the life of a Christian. God desires it for you. This self-love can coexist with true humility.” (end of quote)
Did you catch the “spiritual guardrails” in his observation? We are simultaneously weak and wounded, and amazing children of God. As followers of Christ, we should simultaneously have healthy, biblical self-love and humility. It does not have to be one or the other. We are loved by God, so that we can love ourselves in a healthy way, and can in turn love others.
In other words, this biblical self-love is not self-focused. Instead, this biblical self-love actually frees us from being self-absorbed and allows us to be others-focused.
Today, I encourage you to “Reflect on This.”