So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.  2 Corinthians 4:18

Kids love to play pretend.  When my oldest daughter was three she had an imaginary friend for a while that she talked to throughout the day.  And now my five-year old can play for hours in her room with her dolls pretending all sorts of fun and adventurous things that in real life would just never happen.

 Even as adults we don’t always outgrow playing pretend.  It may take a slightly different form but we sometimes imagine the perfect life;  a beach house, fast car, no problems, everyone likes us, our boss evaporates into thin air and is never seen again, every day is sunny but not too hot, the grass never grows too long and we don’t have to spend our Sunday afternoon mowing it, there are no bills, and we can eat as much cheese cake and chocolate as we like, never exercise, and still look like the model on the cover of the latest fitness magazine. 

Now living in “Lala Land” may get us put into a psyche ward, but 2 Corinthians 4:18 tells us to “fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.”  And Romans 8:24 tells us that “hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?”

Our prayers to God are our hopes and desires, and hopefully we have spent enough time with God that His desires are the desire of our hearts.  “May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.” Psalm 20:4

Therefore I say unto you, whatever things you desire, when you pray, believe that you will receive them, and you shall have them.  Mark 11:24

It is the accepted idea of today  that we need more ‘self-love’.  But here is a thought to ponder;  God is love.  What does that mean?   It means that if I want love I must seek God, for God is love.

Think about this for a moment, little children don’t worry about whether they love themselves or not.  They love their parents and as long as they are assured of their parents love, they are happy.

Christ said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35)   How can you love yourself if you hate the person you go to church with? Or despise your neighbor?  Or won’t speak to your parents because of injustices they have done to you?  What causes such coldness in our feelings to others?  Self.  We are so full of self that we are appalled to be treated so horribly by others.  If we are to have the love of God truly living in our hearts then there must be death to self.  How can a man be dead to sin, if he is not dead to self?

If we are full of love for the Father, He will make sure we are full of love for others.   That is our greatest need; to accept the love of the Father.  For many of us that can be the hardest thing to do: to simply allow God to really love us.   It can be scary.  It can even at times be painful.  But without it our hearts will always be empty and searching for fulfillment somewhere.  To have a true and lasting self-acceptance/self-love we first need for our hearts to be emptied of both and then allow it to be filled with love for the Father, only then will we really have a peace that passes understanding.  Most people seem to seek self-love as something they can do for themselves, when in reality we can only accept who we are when we allow God to fill us with His love.