But what is really ours? Our bodies aren’t our bodies: they are the temple of God.  Our lives are not our lives: they have been bought with a price. (1 Corinthians 6:19 – 20)  God had a plan for your life before you were even born. (Jeremiah 1:5) Just like a rented apartment, these things are ours to use for a time, but someday we will have to answer to the owner.

Though we may behave like spoiled children, snatching control of what’s ours from the hands of a loving parent, God does not respond in kind. Our all knowing and yet all loving Heavenly Father does not force us to submit to His plans for our life. But by surrendering to His plans, God offers us an eternity in paradise, in His presence, and freedom from the punishment that we deserve. And not only does He promise us Heaven after this life, He promises that when we love Him and commit “our” lives to Him, He will give us the desires of our hearts. (Psalms 37:4-5) What a loving God! He rejoices in our obedience. He loves us. We are his children.

It reminds me of a scene from the musical ‘Fiddler on the Roof. Tevye, the main character is introducing his five daughters to a guest.  He embraces one after another proclaiming, “This one’s mine! And this one’s mine!” Just like Tevye, or any other caring parent, God loves his children!  When we surrender our will to His, to what is best for us, we reap the benefits.  God loves to give good gifts to His children. He wants to embrace us and exclaim, “This one’s mine!”

He taught about the love that God has for us, and how John had this revelation. That is why the apostle John was called “John the Beloved”. John, unlike any of the other disciples, saw Jesus all the way to the cross and saw his friend — his master, his God — die for him. It was a gruesome death unfit for any human, let alone the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Through the agony and suffering he watched his savior endure, John learned how much Jesus loved him. He would be forever changed by the knowledge that Jesus loved him enough to endure it all for him, to pay the ultimate price, to be the sacrifice to end all others. Jesus bled and died to relinquish the hold that sin had upon our lives: He gave His all that I might be free!

As I stand back and consider the impact that this unprecedented act has upon my life, it reminds me how insignificant my petty arguments are with my brothers and sisters. If Jesus could have held every sin against me and yet chose to forgive, how much more should I forgive my brothers? As it says in John 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Then Jesus said in Matt 22:39, “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”  From these scriptures we see that we cannot love God if we do not love our neighbor — but we cannot love our neighbor if we don’t love ourselves.

Bro. Urshan said it this way: “We cannot love God if we don’t love others, and we cannot love others if we don’t love ourself”, so we must love ourselves, but not with a selfish love. We must not allow what we see in ourselves, our faults, failures and shortcomings to mitigate what God wants to do through us.

We can find encouragement in the fact that Jesus loves us despite our failures, and He knows us better than we know ourselves anyway. Personally, I am going to let God heal me of the things which prevent me from loving myself, and learn how to love myself unselfishly in the process that He has for me. I challenge you to do the same! Remember, He loves you!

He loves you. He loves you!

Apply this idea to your life. What changes when you know and are convinced that God loves you?