Proverbs 8:22-31
22 “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way,
Before His works of old.
23 I have been established from everlasting,
From the beginning, before there was ever an earth.
...
30 Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman;
And I was daily His delight,
Rejoicing always before Him,
31 Rejoicing in His inhabited world,
And my delight was with the sons of men.
Proverbs 8 personifies "Wisdom" and gives her divine attributes. Some commentators (e.g. Matthew Henry) have understood the voice of "wisdom" here to be Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, speaking of His relationship with His Father before time began.
Under this interpretation, then, Jesus is testifying that from the very beginning His delight was in human beings. He rejoiced with His Father to see the world inhabited and populated by creatures in Their own image and likeness.
Earlier in this series, I wrote about the intensity of God's wrath and how that rightly leads us to the fear of God. What I want to emphasize here is that God's wrath is not the most basic thing about His feelings towards us. He is not mostly mad and He is not mostly sad. Towards those who repent and stop trying to destroy themselves and each other, He is actually glad most of the time. Because His delight and His rejoicing in people were there before His wrath.
Most of us - Christians included - don't like ourselves very much. We are frustrated by our limitations, we dislike our bodies, and we may even have serious character flaws (e.g. anger) that make us feel hopeless and worthless.
If you're a Christian and you dislike yourself, then stop it! If you have repented of Your sins and trusted Him, God actually delights in you. He likes your body, He likes your personality, and He likes your talents and abilities just like He gave them to you. Agree with His evaluation of you. Agree to stop hating yourself and love what He loves: you!
It will help to start by meditating on the fact that He actually likes you. And praying Ephesians 3:16-19 for yourself wouldn't hurt either. If you keep it up, you'll find that over time, your character will change more by meditating on God's love for you than by beating yourself up.
