Pastor Art Snow • February 25, 2022

How you can love your life more in 2022

Don’t you hate those by-lines that say, “Three easy steps to….” Those steps are not always easy, and the three I suggest to you in this blog may not be easy either, but they will help you love 2022 more if you have the courage to follow them.

There is something about the power of three, our God is three in one. We find things easier to follow when we break it down and remember three keys, three blind mice, three little pigs, Goldilocks and the three bears etc.

So allow me to offer you three steps to loving your life in 2022…

Step one: Before you can love your life in 2022 you must love your self.

You might be shocked to know how many people do not love themselves or if you are one of those people, maybe this does not shock you.

Why start here? When Jesus was asked by the Pharisees, “what is the greatest commandment ?”, he answered them to

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, strength, and mind, then love your neighbor as yourself.”

The truth is if you don’t love yourself you cannot love your neighbor as you should.  In his great work entitled “Conformed to His Image” Ken Boa speaks of

“ Loving God completely, ourselves correctly, and others compassionately.” 

Recently I ran across an article entitled, “7 things people do when they do not love themselves” In this article writer, songwriter and poet L. A. Struckle list the following things people do who do not love themselves.

1 They don’t go after their dreams

2 They don’t pamper themselves or their appearance 

3 They settle for leftovers from others

4 They say hurtful things about themselves all day long 

5 They never take that vacation they wanted 

6 They settle for someone they don’t love in relationships 

7 They let fear stop them from doing anything they to change their lives 

Contrast that to the behavior of those that do love themselves;

they possess inner worth,

they are confident they have what it takes to be successful,

they expect others to treat them well,

they expect good things for themselves. 

So what is the key to loving yourself?

The answer is seeing yourself as God sees you.

There is this great Bible verse found in Song of Solomon that will absolutely change your life if you let it. The text is found in chapter 4:1,7,9-10. In this beautiful book King Solomon is speaking to his chosen Shulammite bride, who he is madly in love with. The book is an allegory where Solomon represents Christ and the Shulamimite represents the church or the individual believer. 

You are beautiful, my darling,

beautiful beyond words.

Your eyes are like doves

behind your veil.

God sees you as “beautiful” it doesn’t matter how many flaws you see when you look in the mirror, what God sees is nothing but beauty, you know His image looking back at Him. 

You are altogether beautiful, my darling,

beautiful in every way.

You have captured my heart,

my treasure, my bride.

You hold it hostage with one glance of your eyes,

with a single jewel of your necklace.

Your love delights me,

my treasure, my bride.

Your love is better than wine,

your perfume more fragrant than spices.

When God looks at you His heart races, you are His delight, His treasure, His Bride. Your love is better to Him than the finest wine, then the most fragrant spices. And that is truth, God’s truth, let God be true and everyman a lair. 

It is settled, God is madly in love with you, who are you to not love what God loves. 

Step two: love your assignment.

Your assignment is your purpose on this earth. Much has been written about purpose, but my favorite line is; “there are two days that are important in every persons life, the day they are born and the day they find out why.”

“There are two days that are important in every persons life, the day they are born and the day they find out why.”

I have seen this quote attributed to more than one person, suffice it to say whoever said it they were a wise person. 

I believe every person on the earth has a purpose, we are not just here to take up space and breathe air. We are on a mission from God, to know Him and to make Him known. To accomplish something here that no one else could accomplish. The tragedy of a life is when they fail to complete their purpose, either because they gave up or they they never knew their purpose to begin with. 

If you know your purpose, pursue it with all your strength, vigor and zeal. If you do not know your purpose set aside a period of time when you seek God for your purpose. Seek counsel, ask those around you to pray with you, ask yourself the question, if I could do anything in this world and I know I could not fail, what would it be?

Take a spiritual gift test to learn your gifting,

take the enneagram test to understand yourself,

fast,

pray,

listen

then act.

Our God loves to see His children on task, accomplishing their purpose on His beautiful green earth. 

Step three: love your community.

Love who you are, love what you do, and love those who you do it with. I love flowers and plants, one thing I know about them is that they all flourish when planted in the right soil and environment. I love majestic palm trees, but the truth is I can not grow them in my back yard, the climate would just harm them. The same is with individual Christ-followers.

 When I consider how, when, and where I found Christ I know it was the perfect environment for me, to come to Christ and to grow in Him. It was the early 1970’s my world was filled with Rock-n-roll, bell bottoms and anti-war protests. The church I was birthed into was putting Bible verses to Rock-n-roll tunes and had a very laid back atmosphere where those of my generation could find the King of Kings.

I was planted in the perfect environment for me to take root and grow. Others were finding Christ at them same time in Methodist Churches and Mennonite Churches and others still in Catholic Churches. Each of us led by the Holy Spirit,  finding the right soil for each of us to grow in and begin our journeys in God’s kingdom.

As I grew in Christ, my need for new environments would change, but the key was I always loved the community in which I was ministering to and being ministered to, the soil was always rich and nurturing. 

So look 2022 square in the face, love yourself, love your assignment, and love the community in which you serve. Thrive in 2022 and please God in all you do !

Pastor Art Snow | March 3 2022

Edited and Adapted for Web Use by: Eric Muñoz Jr.