“Love your neighbor as Yourself”—Jesus. This command that Jesus gave us is one that we have all heard and memorized. Sometimes, we forget that loving your neighbors first starts with loving yourself. It’s one thing to love others you may or may not know, but quite another to love yourself, of which you know the deepest and darkest things. Often, we get plagued by shame and guilt from what we have done and ultimately begin to hate ourselves.

I believe this is the greatest weapon the enemy uses to hinder the body of Christ from living in freedom today. Shame prevents us from seeing ourselves the way Papa God sees us, and we begin to forget who we really are and our values.

But I want you to know that Jesus did not die to make you valuable; he died because you are valuable. In every area where shame, guilt, and condemnation have occupied our hearts, Jesus came to heal and restore.

No longer defined by our past mistakes, we become vessels of grace and living testimonies to the transformative power of Jesus. As we go into this new year with new dreams and expectations, let us first lay aside anything hindering our ability to see and love ourselves the way He does.

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