What Is Your Value?

Where do you find your worth?I’ve never met anyone who didn’t want to feel valuable and loved. Some people I’ve met feel valuable because of what they do for work. Maybe they’re mechanics, doctors, servers or anything else. Some people feel valued because they have a loving spouse or good friends. While these things do contribute to our value in small ways, they are not sufficient enough. Here’s what I mean—if your value comes from your job, it can be crushed by losing your job or by getting sick and not being able to work. If your value comes from your spouse, he or she may leave you or change in some way; your friends may desert you and turn against you. When these things happen, our sense of value can be shaken and then we start looking for other things to boost our value or we work harder or we compare ourselves with other people or groups and tell ourselves that we are much better than they are in order to feel good about ourselves. Or we even give in to despair telling ourselves “What’s the use of trying anymore? I’m just no good!” The problem with this sort of value is that it is crushing, it is a heavy load that we are continually trying to carry. This is one of the problems that is causing such a mental health crisis in our society today. It’s also one of the main problems fueling the drug epidemic, homelessness and suicide. We are desperate to feel valued, and no matter how much our society says that it doesn’t matter what people say about you—just be yourself, follow your heart no matter what—we find that it does matter. We need someone to tell us that we are valued and loved. What we need is someone greater than us who knows everything about us to tell us that we are valuable. If you’re a soccer player, it would feel great to have Messi tell us that you’re a good player. If we’re working at McDonald’s, it would be great to have the owner show appreciation for what we do. But ultimately, we need something even greater because they are just people, like you and I. Your ultimate value is determined by a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.Before you throw this away, please consider this message from the Bible which says that you have been created in God’s image—which means that you have infinite value. He created you to be in relationship with Him. We can read that He walked and talked with Adam and Eve in paradise and He provided everything that they needed. This shows us that He deeply cares for us and loves us. Even when Adam and Eve rebelled against God and chose to go away from Him, He had mercy on them and didn’t destroy them as they deserved. He had warned them that if they rebel against Him, there would be natural consequences to their choice and we are still living under those consequences. This is why we have sickness, wars, famines, natural disasters, mental health issues, etc. In spite of this, He gave them a promise of a Saviour to come—who is Jesus—and He covered their shame and guilt. The promise He gave was a way back to relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. You see, when God, who is perfect in every way, became a man, He chose to subject Himself to living in a human body with all its suffering and limitations, and ultimately dying on our behalf, taking the penalty of all of our wrongdoing upon Himself because of His great love for us, even though we are flawed. Because Jesus did this, He showed that we are valuable enough to Him—that He was willing to risk everything for us to bring us back to Himself. Even though you and I, like Adam and Eve, have rebelled against God, choosing to be the lord of our own life, and as a result are now under the condemnation of eternal death, the Bible says: “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). This means that we can come to God just as we are, through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father [God] except through Me” (John 14:6). When we choose to turn away from controlling our own lives and surrender our lives to living for Jesus, we will find that He gives us incredible peace. We’ll find our real meaning, purpose and identity. Jesus said that He has come to give us a full life. He also said that Satan is trying to confuse you with lies and destroy your life. Jesus is seeking you right now. He told several stories about people going to great lengths looking for something lost until it was found. These stories refer to how Jesus is searching for us—but He can only find us if we’re willing to be found and saved. Why not call out to Jesus today?He promises us an eternal, fulfilling life starting today. The Bible says that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). This means that God will forgive us for every wrongdoing (sin) that we’ve ever done. He’ll adopt us into His family and change us from the inside out. We’ll no longer have to struggle with our identity because God will tell us that we are His—that we are loved and accepted for all time. He promises to never leave us alone and will help us through all of life’s problems. I want to challenge you to start reading and studying the Bible for yourself. I suggest the Gideon Bible App as a good place to start. Go to newlife. bible and download the app. You will not only find the complete Bible on there, but also answers to such questions as, how can we know if God exists and how do we know if we can trust the Bible? So why not call on Jesus today? Tell Him you believe He died on the cross for your sins because He loves you, and was raised from the dead. Admit that you’ve sinned by breaking His laws such as lying, stealing, thoughts of adultery and lust, greed, etc. Ask Him to forgive you, to give you new life, and to change you. God is inviting you right now to come to Him. He loves you very, very much. His arms are wide open to you. You are incredibly valuable to Him.