LEARNING TO LOVE AND ACCEPT YOURSELF

Why do you need to learn to love and accept yourself?

This is because you are not perfect, you've made some mistakes in the past, and now as a child of God, you still struggle with yourself.

SEE YOURSELF AS A RAW MATERIAL.
Raw Material: Something with a potential for improvement, development, or elaboration

Potential : capable of becoming real

Improvement: the quality of being better than before.

Development: the act or process of growing or causing something to grow or become larger or more advanced.

Elaboration: made or done with great care or with much detail.

SEE YOURSELF AS A WORK IN PROGRESS.
How we feel about ourselves is a determining factor in our success in life and relationships.
(If you don't treat yourself well, you will find it difficult to treat others well too)

Things To Note:

Our self image is the inner picture we carry of ourselves.
Self image: the way you think about yourself and your abilities or appearance

God never intended us to feel bad about ourselves.

God knows our fault but still loves and accept us.
Ephesians 1:6 To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

Romans 5:6 says:
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
Romans 5:8 :
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:9:
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

**When you don't learn to love and accept yourself, you will start assuming others are better than you and it will make you compare yourself **.

What happens when you don't enjoy who you are right now is you slow down the maturing process.
You'll stop the flow of God's work in your life by being negative. You need to believe God loves you.

Proverbs 24:16 A righteous person may fall seven times, but he gets up again. However, in a disaster wicked people fall.

God is looking for a perfect heart not a perfect performance.

God will eventually turn a perfect heart into a perfect performance.
Philippians 1:6 NCV
God began doing a good work in you, and I am sure he will continue it until it is finished when Jesus Christ comes again.

Philippians 2:13 KJV
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Examples of People in the Bible
The book of Exodus 4:10-11 says
And Moses said unto the Lord , O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
[11] And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord ?

Judges 6:12,15 (Gideon)
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.
[15] And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.

1 Samuel 16:11 (David)
And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither.

Others are Esther, Ruth,

What matters is being a new creation in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

See yourself the way God sees you.
Faith is believing what God says about you irrespective of the circumstance you find yourself.

Learning to love and accept yourself will make you know more about you and want to work on yourself to be a better person.

"You might not be where you ought to be, you are surely not where you used to be but on your way where you should be".