Loathing Ourselves
We are taught that we ought to feel good about ourselves. That is true in some respects. We are made in God's image, so we are people of worth. God made us all unique, and we can feel good about who we are, because of this. However, when it comes to our actions, this is not always the case. We should not listen to the world's wisdom when we are told to feel good about ourselves when we do things that are against the Lord and His Word. However, that is just what some secular counselors tell people today in an effort to keep their patients from feeling badly and being depressed. Actually, there are times when we should feel very badly about our actions. God told Ezekiel that His people would loathe themselves when they remembered their ways and all their evil deeds that defiled them. (Ezekiel 20:43) This would happen because God would come to them and remind them of their sins, so they would repent and be restored in their relationship with Him. I believe we need to hear this lesson today, so we can be restored if we are doing what is not pleasing to the Lord.
God gave each of us a conscience. We know when we have done wrong, whether we are a believer or not. God makes sure to send His Spirit to convict us of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Then, we feel guilt for our actions, and we should be sorry for our sins. This is even more true for Christians. We have the Holy Spirit in us. He confronts us before we sin and tells us to stop. When we don't listen, and we go ahead and sin anyway, He continues to convict us. This is God's way of keeping us from damaging our relationship with Him. Eventually, we will realize how evil we have acted in rejecting the Holy Spirit's warnings and bringing shame on the name of the Lord. At that point it is right for us to loathe ourselves. We should see the ways we have hurt the Lord and hurt others, as well as, ourselves, and we should hate who we have been and what we have done. This godly loathing should keep us from doing it again, and that is why it is good for us, not bad. I pray that we will stop to ask God to show us any actions or attitudes that have been sinful, so we can confess them and repent, so we can walk closely with the Lord every day.
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Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezekiel 21-24.