Back in February a Favorite clinical psychologist of mine (Margaret Nagib) posted an image coupled with a concept on Instagram. It was a picture of a balancing scale. On one side of the scale it illustrated how self-criticism can motivate you in the short term, thereby making it appear as a great motivator. On the other side of the scale, however, it illustrated criticism will paralyze you and keep you from accomplishing your goals. In a nutshell, if you practice negative self talk to get yourself to change it will cause more harm than good and you most likely will stay stuck. She went on to say that we must practice extending compassion towards ourselves in order for positive change to occur. 

I admire this woman a lot!  When one of her concepts hits my heart in a positive way, I challenge the Lord to show me where this concept is seen in the Bible. As I asked God about this particular concept, He immediately took me to this story in the Gospels:

Matthew 9:35-36Amplified Bible

35 Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages [in Galilee], teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news (gospel) of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness [His words and His works reflecting His Messiahship].

36 When He saw the crowds, He was moved with compassion and pity for them, because they were dispirited and distressed, like sheep without a shepherd.

This portion of scripture creates a visual of Jesus (fully God, fully man) being able to look upon each individual person in this crowd and see deeply into each person's heart. I could just imagine Him knowing which ones had just committed adultery. I could sense Jesus knowing that a young boy standing alone was an orphan. I was certain that he knew the pain in each of their hearts. It didn't matter if the crowd contained 50 people or 5000 people, He knew each one intimately. 

Jesus is our model for healing. The gospels share repeatedly that when Jesus had compassion, the power was present to heal the sick. 

Matthew 15:29-30Amplified Bible

Healing Crowds

29 Jesus went on from there and passed along by [the eastern shore of] the Sea of Galilee. Then He went up on the hillside and was sitting there. 30 And great crowds came to Him, bringing with them the lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others, and they put them down at His feet; and He healed them. 

If you have ever heard the stories of men and women of God who walk in a healing anointing, they will often share that they can feel the compassion of Christ pouring out of them as they pray for the sick. Those people are usually healed.

As I enjoyed this vision in my mind's eye, I heard the Lord say, "If I needed compassion to heal the sick, what makes you think that criticism would be a catalyst for change and healing?" 

If we are to model the Lord's behavior then we must extend compassion towards ourselves and others in order for healing to take place. 

The next time you are hard on yourself, I hope you realize it quickly and trade that for compassion.  For example, if you are trying to lose weight and have a non-productive eating day (did you like that wording), 

instead of the negative self-talk around what you ate you may want to ask yourself what was happening and why you chose to make the choices that you made.  Turn it into a learning curve instead of rejecting yourself.  Remember, we “fail forward to success”.  If you don’t fail and learn you won’t succeed.  Taking the time to extend the kindness that God would have for you in that situation will help motivate you to heal in the area of struggle.  

As you begin your new week ask yourself some questions:

1. What areas of my life am I the hardest on myself?

2. How can I change my negative self—talk into words of compassion?

3. How will this enable me to succeed in these areas?

4. Do I need to meditate on the Scriptures to gain a deeper revelation of the compassion of God before I can walk this concept out

5. May God richly bless you this week!

For the Kingdom,

Donna