God wants you to accept yourself and like who you are. He doesn't want you to reject yourself because of imperfections. He wants you to learn to deal with your weaknesses. Because the truth is, we all have plenty of them.
The Bible tells us that Jesus understands our weaknesses (Heb. 4:15), the Holy Spirit bears us up in our weakness (Rom. 8:26), and God chooses weak and foolish things of the world to confound the wise (1 Cor. 1:27).
If I look at my weaknesses and tell you what I believe my value is, it would be less than nothing. But I have learned that my worth is not based on anything I do, but in what God has already done.
It's wonderful not to start the day by waking up and hating yourself before you ever get out of bed. It's wonderful to no longer hear the devil rattling in your ears a list of all the mistakes you made the day before. It's wonderful not to have him remind you of what a failure you are.
Many people are beat down before they ever get their feet on the floor in the morning. The devil's plan is to deceive us into basing our worth on our performance, then keep us focused on our faults and shortcomings.
Satan wants us to have a low opinion of ourselves and be insecure so that we live ineffectively for God. This mindset makes us miserable and unreceptive to God's blessings, because we don't think we deserve them.
Once we come into peace with ourselves, we will begin to come into peace with others. If we learn to accept and like ourselves, we will accept and like others. I know this is true from personal experience. The more I am able to accept and like myself in spite of my weaknesses and flaws, the more I am able to accept and like others in spite of theirs.
Every one of us is imperfect, and God loves us just the way we are.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers