God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
We ought to rejoice that in God’s great wisdom and love He does in fact answer all of our requests, though to be sure, He says no to some things because our having them would hurt us in the long run. We also ought to rejoice that in His wisdom He gives us what we ask at the best time, rather than at an earlier time when our very limited judgment thinks it would be best. And finally, we ought to rejoice that God’s love and wisdom gives us what often turns out to be far better than the precise thing for which we had asked (Eph. 3:20).
There is a lot of confusion today about the self-love referred to in this verse: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Gal. 5:14). The most common error is to assume that this is a command to loveyourself and that self-love means self-esteem. Both of these assumptions are wrong. Paul and Moses (Lev. 19:18) and Jesus (Lk. 10:27) assume that all people love themselves; they don’t command it: “You shall love your neighbor as you (already) love yourself.” And the self-love they assume is not self-esteem but self-interest: all people want to be happy, even if they often don't know what will really make them happy.
