Two Critical Steps: Loving God, Then Loving Myself
Before I could love myself, I had to learn to love God with all my heart.
By Minister Elbennit
November 5, 2026
2 min read
Last week I shared my biggest step of healing: forgiving others, and myself. My next step was learning to love myself. But I found out I couldn’t take that step on its own. Before I could love myself, I had to learn to love God with all my heart.
So it was really two steps, and both were critical.
As a young man, I couldn’t imagine loving anyone more than I loved my mama. So the idea of loving God more than her was hard for me. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe. It was that my heart didn’t know how to make that kind of room.
Then I came to understand something. When you accept God and love Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, He doesn’t take love away from anyone else. He multiplies it. God’s love lets you love beyond what you thought was possible. It even lets you love the unlovable.
Loving God first gave my heart room to heal. Then He filled it with enough love to pour out for others.
And that is where loving myself came in. Once my heart was full of God’s love, I finally had enough to love myself, and enough left over to love others fully and completely. That is how love is supposed to be: without conditions and without expectations. This love also fueled my passion to serve the Lord God Almighty through the Walking With Christ ministry.
So here is my encouragement to you today. Love God with everything you have. Then learn to love yourself. That was the critical step, and it was the next step of my healing journey.
This week, before you ask God for anything, simply tell God you love Him. Then look in the mirror and say, “God loves you, and so do I.”
Jesus put it this way:
“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
Mark 12:30–31 (KJV)
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Mark 12:30–31 (NIV)
Thank you for being a part of this journey with me.
