No More Self-HatePrøve

“How do you do it all? You work. You homeschool. You keep your house clean.” My girlfriend told me how she felt that somehow I “had it all.” She felt defeated and inadequate, and it was affecting our friendship.

She was surprised to hear I felt precisely the same way. Crushed by my own inadequacies, I too lived with the sense that I would never be good enough.

Today’s devotional is for those of us who don’t measure up. In other words, it’s for all of us.

I understand that self-hate arising from deep feelings of inadequacy is complex. It comes from things we have done, things that have been done to us, and things that I cannot fully cover in this brief devotional.

My girlfriend and I can experience deep self-hate because we fail to live up to our impossible standards for ourselves. For me growing up, an A grade wasn’t good enough. It had to be an A+. Even my second-grade teacher told my mom I was a candidate for an ulcer in the second grade!

Sadly, that wasn’t just the way I was back then. Even now, for example, I speak many hateful words out loud about myself. My family cannot stand it when I talk like that, and they are right!

When we speak hate against ourselves, we don’t just speak out against someone for whom Christ died or against one made in God’s image, as we have studied. We are not just speaking the words of the accuser of the brethren, as we have seen.

When we speak self-hate, we speak things we actually BELIEVE about ourselves. Matthew 12:34 says “that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” 2 Corinthians 4:13b says, “we also believe and therefore speak.”

Believing and speaking hateful lies about yourself is destructive. 1 Peter 3:10 says, “He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit.”

In other words, speaking hateful lies, even if those lies are about ourselves, actually contributes to our misery!

Instead, the Bible teaches us to speak the truth in love. Rather than repeating lies about ourselves, we must speak the truth of God’s Word, His character, and His promises.

Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

That word workmanship is translated as “masterpiece.” Consider what makes a masterpiece a masterpiece. A masterpiece is one-of-a-kind, and it reflects the brilliance of its Creator!

So rather than speaking and believing hateful lies, remember, you are God’s masterpiece!