Red Wednesday's Wisdom - CHG #4, Part Three

Love Myself and Others
Over the next month I will not be writing for the blog.  I will be vacationing, relaxing, and enjoying the plans that my family and I have been making over the past two years! So, as we conclude with CHG # 4, I want to leave you with some SW questions to ponder upon.  I would like you to consider some common possible traps that maybe have had an impact on how you have loved yourself and others.

1.  Has the trap been about “people pleasing” and saying “yes” over and over so as to feel loved and accepted?
2.  Has the trap been anger because your “people pleasing” has backfired on you, and it now causes you to feel resentful because you said “yes” so much?
3.  Has the trap been a need to control, where you think that it has to be your way or the highway in order to feel important?
4.  Has the trap been unworthiness where you see yourself as a mess and you question who could ever love you? 
5.  Has the trap been of perfectionism where you tell yourself, “If I can’t do it perfectly, I won’t do it at all?” 6.  Has the trap been about self righteousness so that you see yourself as being better or more “godly” than someone else?

Here is how I want to respond to these questions of entrapment.  God loves us and He wants us to love ourselves and each other.  God’s heart and love is mirrored in His Son, Jesus Christ.  Jesus died to save you from you, from Satan, and from the clutter of your sins.  When you ask Jesus in to your heart, you are made clean, right, and justified from your sin through Jesus Christ and Him only.  It is not dependent upon how good you are or all the good you have done or will do.  You are declared not guilty through Christ. You come to the end of focusing on yourself and you begin to put your focus on God. When you love Jesus and obey God you are reflecting Jesus, His righteousness, His light and His love. Our example turns many to Christ and that results in others being righteous through Christ as well.
 
There is a big differentiation between the righteousness of God and self righteousness.  Self righteousness is void of love.  It is all about me and my agenda.  The focus is on the law verses the love.  Look at the Pharisees who were full of zeal.  The problem was that their zeal was about religiosity and not relationship. Do you want religion or do you want a relationship with God?

Remember when I suggested that you cut out a red heart and then write on it the message of love that God wanted you to hear?  Do you recall what yours said?  If you don’t remember, then go back and look at it.  Put it on display for your eyes to see so that your heart can absorb its full meaning.

Years ago, when I was on one of my walks praying about all the different relationships in my life this acronym came to me:
S
H
E

It is reflective of what you need to ask yourself and answer in regards to your relationships being less cluttered. 
Is it SAFE?
Is it HEALTHY?
Is it EDIFYING?

Am I being safe, healthy, and edifying in what I am doing to myself or with myself? 
Am I being safe, healthy, and edifying in what I am doing to others or with others?
Are my relationships or circumstances safe, healthy, and edifying? 

How often we have thought that lust was love or looked for love in all the wrong places.

Many of you have not had relationships that were safe, healthy or edifying.  It has not been safe because you have not been protected, you were put in harm’s way, or there was no sense of boundaries.  It has not been healthy because your well being has been compromised at every level.  It has not been edifying because you have been put down so much that you have lacked a sense of value and worth.

Some of you have been abused, wounded, broken, and destroyed for so long that you believe you deserve to be abused, wounded, broken, and destroyed.  Someone else may have done these things to you, and now you believe that you must do them to yourself.  This kind of thinking is a lie!  God wants to replace that lie with the truth of His Word.  He wants to give you a new way to love yourself and others.

I want to close with these words from 1Corinthians 13:4.

“Love is patient and kind.  Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.  Love does not demand its own way.  Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged.  It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never looses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”
             
This Scripture is filled with God’s wisdom about loving me and others. You could literally spend days, weeks, and months reflecting and meditating on just this one Scripture.  During the next month, speak this Scripture over and over to yourself and see how God lovingly sheds His light on your hidden story so that you can experience His healing, hope, love, and truth.