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God Loves Me and I Love Myself!: Overcoming the Resistance to Loving Yourself
DO YOU LOVE YOURSELF? Most people have never even asked themselves that question, let alone know how to answer it. This is because we live under a modern plague, where masses struggle to love themselves as God loves them. Very few understand how to love themselves in a healthy way and have no tools to break free from the resistance that blocks them. Jesus said that we are to love our neighbor “as ourselves.” Yet that phrase seems to be the most ignored command of the Bible. The fruit of our relationships hinges on our ability to loves ourselves with the love that God has for us. So many struggle in a daily battle that keeps them from the freedom that love has. In this book, Mark will utilize his personal freedom experience and over 20 years working with people to unlock the missing link to powerful relationships. In this book, you will be equipped to move into the power of self-love - Learning what healthy self-love is and what it is not. - Identifying the resistance that blocks people from loving themselves. - Observing how a lack of self-love affects every area of our lives. - Unlocking practical ways to gain freedom and to love yourself as God does. - Receiving important tools that you can practice immediately to overcome. - Putting healthy self-love into action to give and receive love powerfully!
157 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 4, 2016
261 people are currently reading
141 people want to read
About the author
Mark DeJesus
13 books48 followersMark DeJesus has served as a communicator in various capacities since 1995. As a teacher, author, pastor, coach and exhorter, Mark is deeply passionate about restoring the hearts of people in the love of God and teaching them to walk in transformational living. His message involves getting to the heart of mental health struggles and the day to day battles believers face in their thoughts, emotions and relationships. Out of their own personal renewal, Mark and his wife Melissa founded Turning Hearts Ministries International, a ministry dedicated to inside out transformation. They live in Charlotte North Carolina and enjoy raising their two children, Maximus and Abigail.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
September 27, 2022
A book review: God loves me and I love myself by Mark DeJesus
If I could give this book 6/5 I would. It was exactly what I need in this stage of my life. I’ve benefited greatly from Mark’s podcast and knew I wanted to dive deeper so I listened to this book.
If you struggle with self hate, worthiness, or condemning self talk, read this book.
I’ve been learning different psychology tools to deal with my thought life, and I saw those in different forms throughout this book, which was great. BUT what made it stick even deeper in my heart was how he wrapped tools, scripture, roadblocks, and experiences all together in a way that gave me a much better understanding on how to actually apply it in my life.
He also addressed many of the roadblocks in the Christian world that have can hold many back in fear.
I highly recommend this book, and I know I will be referencing and re-reading it as I continue on my journey toward learning to love who God made me.
If I could give this book 6/5 I would. It was exactly what I need in this stage of my life. I’ve benefited greatly from Mark’s podcast and knew I wanted to dive deeper so I listened to this book.
If you struggle with self hate, worthiness, or condemning self talk, read this book.
I’ve been learning different psychology tools to deal with my thought life, and I saw those in different forms throughout this book, which was great. BUT what made it stick even deeper in my heart was how he wrapped tools, scripture, roadblocks, and experiences all together in a way that gave me a much better understanding on how to actually apply it in my life.
He also addressed many of the roadblocks in the Christian world that have can hold many back in fear.
I highly recommend this book, and I know I will be referencing and re-reading it as I continue on my journey toward learning to love who God made me.
April 27, 2018
Amazing Book. A Must Read for Everyone!
This book has changed my life. It has opened my eyes to see and hear how God looks at me and what he speaks over me . Everyone should read this book and share it with their children. Great wisdom yet very simple and practical.
This book has changed my life. It has opened my eyes to see and hear how God looks at me and what he speaks over me . Everyone should read this book and share it with their children. Great wisdom yet very simple and practical.
July 25, 2022
Powerful book!
I cannot express enough, how helpful and powerful a tool this book is in the tool box of Christians! This book helps bring Christians freedom from self destructive thinking and behavior patterns by helping them fully realize how much we're loved by God. The goal of deliverance is two fold- learning to love ourselves appropriately empowers us to love our neighbors as ourselves and love God for who he is in relationship with us rather than for the blessings he offers to us.
I cannot express enough, how helpful and powerful a tool this book is in the tool box of Christians! This book helps bring Christians freedom from self destructive thinking and behavior patterns by helping them fully realize how much we're loved by God. The goal of deliverance is two fold- learning to love ourselves appropriately empowers us to love our neighbors as ourselves and love God for who he is in relationship with us rather than for the blessings he offers to us.
January 31, 2023
Mind renewing and life altering
This was exactly what I needed to read. It helped to expose some mindsets I didn't realize I was carrying and showed me how to take steps to be free. I made so many highlights that I know I will review again and again. I like that there are practical steps to take that with time can truly make a shift in the way I see myself...to seeing myself the same way God does.
This was exactly what I needed to read. It helped to expose some mindsets I didn't realize I was carrying and showed me how to take steps to be free. I made so many highlights that I know I will review again and again. I like that there are practical steps to take that with time can truly make a shift in the way I see myself...to seeing myself the same way God does.
November 6, 2019
I have pages and pages of things I highlighted in this book. It's a great book for anyone dealing with being yourself in a society that puts out standards we think we need to follow even if it makes us dislike ourselves. The book gives helpful suggestions on how to love ourselves by seeing ourselves through God's eyes.
January 25, 2023
I never thought that loving myself could be okay with God, but the author explains clearly why if is. It was a liberating experience.
July 17, 2025
Amazing book. Content 5/5. Very liberating and empowering. There were probably 10 or so typos or formatting mistakes so I’m giving it 4/5 overall
January 4, 2025
(1.5 / 5)
I'm not going to pretend that I went into this book with an open mind. The subject matter and the little bit I heard from the author in a video threw up so many red flags, but I read the book because my sister told me she was reading it to help her through some difficulties in her life. The author posits that a lack of self-love is at the root of many (even most) people's mental health struggles and relationship issues. This is a super-boiled-down explanation, but I don't want to take a long time to explain, nor do I want to spend much time on this review, lest it turn into a rant. The truth is, it is very difficult for me to put words to my concerns about this point of view and this book, but I felt uneasy throughout most of it. The author does quickly lay to rest the immediate thought that telling people that they need to love themselves more will lead them to become self-centered, but on the other hand, when he gets to the part about putting the ideas from this book into action, it's very self-centered.
One of the biggest things I questioned by the end of this book is where God really fits into this. Sure, the author talks about God and about the Bible plenty, even quoting some verses. But it's almost exclusively about God loving us (it's right there in the title), and almost zero mention of us loving God. In fact, while I was reading, I highlighted this quote: "God will love you, even if you decide to never serve him!" and asked, "Though if that's the case, does the person really love God?" Yes, God doesn't require us to serve him in order for us to be saved—that's the entire basis of salvation by grace vs. works. But if we truly love God, we will want to serve Him, and at no point is that really discussed in this book. It's also contradictory, in that one of the ways the author says to start loving yourself more is by helping others, yet multiple times the book says that helping others when you don't love yourself enough can lead to burnout.
The author also quotes Ephesians 5:28 ("In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.") but conveniently stops without ever addressing verse 29 ("After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church..."). The author maintains that it's difficult to love others as we love ourselves when we don't or don't know how to love ourselves, yet Paul states that we generally love ourselves enough to keep ourselves alive. DeJesus actually sees the "as you love yourself" part as a command, but it seems more like a given to me. I understand that some people do harm themselves and that there are plenty of people with psychological issues that involve self-hate, but I think this whole thing is more nuanced than the author allows for in this book. In fact, so much of this book was repetitive and thus felt shallow.
I don't know if the intended audience for this book is everyone or specifically Christians. It seemed like it was targeted at Christians most of the time, but when it tells us that we need to "[position] ourselves for being filled up with God's love," I question why I wouldn't already be filled with God's love, if I've accepted Christ as my savior. Maybe what the author means is that we need to let ourselves "feel" God's love more, but that opens up a whole new argument for me, since "feeling" God's love is not always possible or easy for me, but that doesn't mean I don't believe 100% that God loves me. I'm also not really sure where sin enters into this, since more than once, DeJesus posits that self-love means accepting yourself with no strings attached. While I understand that God doesn't want us to constantly live in shame over past sins, I feel like this removes the conviction of current sins. Even "lawlessness" as referenced in Matthew 24:12, NKJV ("And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.") is attributed to broken hearts that cause us to fall into "darkness and destructive behaviors." Maybe I'm nitpicking, but it feels like we're glossing over sin here.
Some of DeJesus's suggestions for how to begin to love oneself more made alarm bells ring in my head, since it feels too close to being New Age practices for me. At the very least, the suggested meditating, breathing in the spirit while breathing out toxicity, even words of affirmation, almost completely leave God out of the equation, instead focusing on myself.
Sadly, I completely understand why this book speaks to some people in their need, but I would have a difficult time believing that this way of thinking can affect lasting change. There is a chapter or so that I thought made some good points, but for the most part, it just felt empty to me. Granted, I'm definitely not its target audience, because though I don't think I'd ever have described myself as being full of self-love, when I struggle with feeling worthless or unloved, I don't hesitate to seek God through prayer and Bible reading. This book reminded me a lot of what I don't care for about modern worship music. Generally speaking, there are a lot of songs about how broken we are, how God loves us right where we are, etc., and while none of that is false, I don't think we're meant to camp in that mindset. It's important to spend time loving God, praising God, not just for what He has done for us, but for who He is—the power, wonder, majesty of His being. Maybe focusing more on how awesome He is, is really what we need to put things into perspective and boost our own moods. Like Job said in the depths of his despair, wishing he'd never been born, after God put things into perspective for him: “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer—twice, but I will say no more.” Job's circumstances hadn't gotten better (yet), but he knew that God was so much bigger than he could ever understand, and maybe that's something we have forgotten in our modern world.
I guess I did end up spending a while on this review. There was just too much I wanted to say, and this only includes a portion of the highlights and notes I made while reading. It probably goes without saying, but I don't recommend this book to anyone; I simply don't think there's enough substance, or the right substance, to be worthwhile.
I'm not going to pretend that I went into this book with an open mind. The subject matter and the little bit I heard from the author in a video threw up so many red flags, but I read the book because my sister told me she was reading it to help her through some difficulties in her life. The author posits that a lack of self-love is at the root of many (even most) people's mental health struggles and relationship issues. This is a super-boiled-down explanation, but I don't want to take a long time to explain, nor do I want to spend much time on this review, lest it turn into a rant. The truth is, it is very difficult for me to put words to my concerns about this point of view and this book, but I felt uneasy throughout most of it. The author does quickly lay to rest the immediate thought that telling people that they need to love themselves more will lead them to become self-centered, but on the other hand, when he gets to the part about putting the ideas from this book into action, it's very self-centered.
One of the biggest things I questioned by the end of this book is where God really fits into this. Sure, the author talks about God and about the Bible plenty, even quoting some verses. But it's almost exclusively about God loving us (it's right there in the title), and almost zero mention of us loving God. In fact, while I was reading, I highlighted this quote: "God will love you, even if you decide to never serve him!" and asked, "Though if that's the case, does the person really love God?" Yes, God doesn't require us to serve him in order for us to be saved—that's the entire basis of salvation by grace vs. works. But if we truly love God, we will want to serve Him, and at no point is that really discussed in this book. It's also contradictory, in that one of the ways the author says to start loving yourself more is by helping others, yet multiple times the book says that helping others when you don't love yourself enough can lead to burnout.
The author also quotes Ephesians 5:28 ("In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.") but conveniently stops without ever addressing verse 29 ("After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church..."). The author maintains that it's difficult to love others as we love ourselves when we don't or don't know how to love ourselves, yet Paul states that we generally love ourselves enough to keep ourselves alive. DeJesus actually sees the "as you love yourself" part as a command, but it seems more like a given to me. I understand that some people do harm themselves and that there are plenty of people with psychological issues that involve self-hate, but I think this whole thing is more nuanced than the author allows for in this book. In fact, so much of this book was repetitive and thus felt shallow.
I don't know if the intended audience for this book is everyone or specifically Christians. It seemed like it was targeted at Christians most of the time, but when it tells us that we need to "[position] ourselves for being filled up with God's love," I question why I wouldn't already be filled with God's love, if I've accepted Christ as my savior. Maybe what the author means is that we need to let ourselves "feel" God's love more, but that opens up a whole new argument for me, since "feeling" God's love is not always possible or easy for me, but that doesn't mean I don't believe 100% that God loves me. I'm also not really sure where sin enters into this, since more than once, DeJesus posits that self-love means accepting yourself with no strings attached. While I understand that God doesn't want us to constantly live in shame over past sins, I feel like this removes the conviction of current sins. Even "lawlessness" as referenced in Matthew 24:12, NKJV ("And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.") is attributed to broken hearts that cause us to fall into "darkness and destructive behaviors." Maybe I'm nitpicking, but it feels like we're glossing over sin here.
Some of DeJesus's suggestions for how to begin to love oneself more made alarm bells ring in my head, since it feels too close to being New Age practices for me. At the very least, the suggested meditating, breathing in the spirit while breathing out toxicity, even words of affirmation, almost completely leave God out of the equation, instead focusing on myself.
Sadly, I completely understand why this book speaks to some people in their need, but I would have a difficult time believing that this way of thinking can affect lasting change. There is a chapter or so that I thought made some good points, but for the most part, it just felt empty to me. Granted, I'm definitely not its target audience, because though I don't think I'd ever have described myself as being full of self-love, when I struggle with feeling worthless or unloved, I don't hesitate to seek God through prayer and Bible reading. This book reminded me a lot of what I don't care for about modern worship music. Generally speaking, there are a lot of songs about how broken we are, how God loves us right where we are, etc., and while none of that is false, I don't think we're meant to camp in that mindset. It's important to spend time loving God, praising God, not just for what He has done for us, but for who He is—the power, wonder, majesty of His being. Maybe focusing more on how awesome He is, is really what we need to put things into perspective and boost our own moods. Like Job said in the depths of his despair, wishing he'd never been born, after God put things into perspective for him: “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer—twice, but I will say no more.” Job's circumstances hadn't gotten better (yet), but he knew that God was so much bigger than he could ever understand, and maybe that's something we have forgotten in our modern world.
I guess I did end up spending a while on this review. There was just too much I wanted to say, and this only includes a portion of the highlights and notes I made while reading. It probably goes without saying, but I don't recommend this book to anyone; I simply don't think there's enough substance, or the right substance, to be worthwhile.
Read
May 24, 2021Outstanding book. Anyone who is in christian ministry/service should read. It will change your life for the better. My eyes were open to the damage that has been done by the enemy, Satan, especially as a child and how it has effected me most of my life. Now there is a way to combat these effects and with God's help make great change in me and my outlook.
February 19, 2022
This is a really good book by Mark addressing a really important aspect of our lives: loving ourselves as God loves us. This book offers a challenge to unhealthy mindsets that lead to self hate and brings freedom and clarity offering hope that in the unconditional love of God, we can find a love that transforms us and one we can rest in with total confidence. Highly recommend this book!
April 8, 2021
Timely read
Truths that were right on time! I'm ready to recieve God's love for myself in a deeper way and let that translate into loving myself. Love the practical guides at the end.
Truths that were right on time! I'm ready to recieve God's love for myself in a deeper way and let that translate into loving myself. Love the practical guides at the end.
June 28, 2024
I luv this book for my students so that they know how to luv themselves as God created them and how God sees them and not to care about the words and what others think. To see their value how God sees them. Great book for teenagers.
April 5, 2025
So much good stuff in here, especially for those who may have been raised in a shame-driven environment. I could have used more Scripture in the text, but there was plenty given at the end. I will be reading more DeJesus books.
July 25, 2025
Didn’t find much flow to this book. Too heavy on identifying and defining someone that doesn’t love themself. Would have liked more theology and a deeper dive into God’s love. Mark does have a good YT channel with many helpful videos.
January 16, 2020
I received so much insight in this book! Was very good!
July 21, 2025
A must read for everyone, especially if you feel beyond the grace of God for whatever reason especially childhood trauma.
September 23, 2025
There is nothing wrong with the content in this book. It just lacks creativity and storytelling. It's just meh.
December 26, 2025
Very important book especially for Christian who have dealt with mental health issues or want to be equipped to help others/deal with their own potential future issues
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews