We are taught from a very young age that God loves us, but if this is true, then our lives should be easy, especially if we are a good person and believe in Him, right? You try to do the right thing, you’re a good person, but bad things happen. This is the age old question, why do bad things happen to good people?
I have struggled with this a lot in my life. I feel like I try to be a good person, but I’m constantly at war with myself if I did the right thing, or handled a situation in the right way. I have a hard time coming to terms with how often people seem to hate me and to be at war with me. I often feel like I am crazy and that no matter what I do, it was the wrong decision. This is not only difficult personally, but it’s difficult managing relationships as well, because everyone is different, and everyone perceives things differently.
Scripture points to this hardship often. Jesus tells us that He has come to bring division. He has told us that the world hated Him before it hated you. That God so loved the World that he sent His only Son.
I have found, through my prayer, that I need to focus on the promises of Christ to get through my daily struggles. Yes, it is difficult when everyone seems to hate you, but when you know you are doing the good thing, the right thing, and the just thing, you are walking with God to build a better life for others, and helping to make this world a better place. The joy that can bring you is worth it. The smile that you help bring to someone else is contagious and just might bring you out of the funk you are in on that day.
I think that we often forget how big God is. He wants us to seek Him, to ask for the things we need, to pray for others, to praise him and to thank Him, but do we know that we can cry to Him, yell at Him, tell Him that we don’t understand? He loves you as your parents love you, or should have loved you. He loves you so fully that we are not even able to comprehend that level of love. The best part is that no matter what you think of yourself, He loves you as if you were the only person in the entire world. He knew that this world needed you, not you if you were someone different, not you if you were better, skinnier, prettier, smarter, stronger; He loves you for you, just as you are. Yes, He calls us through that love to be better, to strive for perfection and to sin no more, but these changes are not conditions of His love, but a benefit of it.
Can you take time this week to take a look at yourself? What are some of the attributes that make you unique? Why does this world need you right now? How can you begin to start loving yourself today a little more than you did yesterday? Maybe if you do this enough, you can start believing that you are loved, maybe not the way you want to be by those around you, but by the One who created the perfection of who you are, flaws and all.