I normally do not like Joel Osteen, but the message he had the other day I actually thought was good. He was preaching that we should like ourselves. I agree 100%.
God knows that we are not perfect, but yet He has given us a path to spend eternity with Him in Heaven. We are always a work in progress, hence the scripture about we are the clay and He is the potter.
So many of us want to be perfect now and unfortunately, that is not how it works. Yet if we are not perfect instantaneously, we have a tendency to give up or we start to question ourselves and ultimately criticize ourselves to the point where it is detrimental to our spiritual growth.
The other side of that is we start out thinking that I am not worthy and make no efforts to change. We may think why would God love or forgive me or I have done way too many bad things for God to love me. Again we are super critical of ourselves to the point where in inhibits our spiritual growth.
Here are just some of the thoughts that people may have:
- I am not worthy of Gods forgiveness
- Why would God love me, no one else does
- I am rich enough
- I am too short
- I am too tall
- I am too fat
- I am too skinny
- I am not pretty enough
- I am _________ (Fill the blank with a negative word)
Do we need change, of course. Our goal is to become more like Christ and that may take time. So while you are on the journey to be more like Christ and accept Him as your Lord and Savior, relax. Learn to “Like Yourself”. God loves you and wants you to spend eternity with Him in Heaven. Why would a God who knows you have sinned and fall short of His glory want you to spend eternity with Him if He did not love you?