If you want to become a better you, it is imperative that you learn to feel good about yourself. Too many people live under condemnation, constantly listening to the wrong voices. The Bible refers to the Enemy as “the accuser of the brethren” who would love for us to live our lives guilty and condemned. He constantly brings accusations against us, telling us that we didn’t do what we should have done. He’ll remind us of all our mistakes and failures.

Unfortunately, the negative opinions and ridicule of people in our past can also seeps into our self-estimation.

Many of us swallow these lies with little or no defense. Consequently, we walk around feeling guilty, condemned, and extremely discontented with ourselves. We go through our days without joy, without confidence, expecting the worst and often receiving it.

Granted, no human being is perfect. We all sinned, failed, and made mistakes. But many people don’t know they can receive God’s mercy and forgiveness. Instead, they beat themselves up on the inside. Instead of believing that they’re growing and improving, they believe the disparaging voice. When they wake up in the morning, it is telling them what they did wrong yesterday, and they’ll probably do something wrong today. As a result, they become extremely critical towards themselves, and that usually spills over to others as well.

Do any of these statement live in your mind?

• I don’t deserve to be happy.
• I lost my temper last week.
• I should have spent more time with my family.
• I’m not as spiritual as I should be.
• I didn’t work hard enough last week.
• God can’t bless me because of my past.
• I should have taken better care of myself.
• I should have gone back to college.
• I can’t do anything right.
• I’ll never break this habit.
• I’m just a failure.

Those are all lies. Don’t allow condemning voices to play repeatedly in your mind. That will only accentuate a negative attitude towards yourself, which will hinder every area of your life.

There’s a time to repent, but there’s also a time to shake it off and press forward.

If we’re going to live in peace with ourselves, we must learn to put our foot down and change our self-talk to something encouraging:

• I may not be perfect, but I know I’m growing.
• I may have made mistakes, but I know I am forgiven. I have received God’s mercy.
• I may not have a perfect performance, but I know my heart is right.
• Other people may not always be pleased with me, but I’m confident that God is.

If you are doing your best and desire to do what’s right according to God’s word, you can be assured God is pleased with you. Certainly, He wants you to improve, but He knows that we all have weaknesses. We all do things that we know in our hearts we shouldn’t do. When our human foibles and imperfections poke through our idealism, it’s normal to regret our actions.

Your analysis and observations may be true, but it doesn’t do you any good to put yourself down. Let the past be the past. You cannot change it, and if you make the mistake of living in guilt today because of something that happened yesterday, you won’t have the strength you need to live this day in victory.

You can read more about the importance of self-talk at:

Encouragement-So Little Yet So Much

You are More than the World Perceives

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Relevant Scripture:

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

“Now have come the salvation and the power
    and the kingdom of our God,
    and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
    who accuses them before our God day and night,
    has been hurled down.” (Rev 12:10)

Reference:

Become a Better You by Joel Osteen