What is your Worth?

You are Worth Much

How many times have we heard that “You will never come to anything. You’re useless you are,” or at least words to that effect. Even worse to hear is, “You’re just not worth it.” These condemning words, curses by any other name, were spoken over generations of us as children. Teachers and parents in my childhood had no real concept of giving a child self worth so an entire generation grew up with little or none of it. Fortunately, later life proved to most of us that we do have worth, that our opinion does matter to someone, that our being is important. However, that same world then proceeded to devalue us bit by bit by little bit until now, very many people have no self esteem and no perceived worth. We have even learned to speak the words of failure, doom and gloom over ourselves. “I’ll never do that.” Or “I can’t – that’s impossible for me”.

Yet in all of this, there is still one advocate who does still value us and to whom we have great value and that Is Jesus. He values us so much that He died for us in order to bring us to His Kingdom. He sent Holy Spirit to us to teach us, to encourage us, and to lead us. We, who nowadays do understand some things, know that you don’t encourage, lead, or teach those with no potential, with no value. Jesus values us so much that I believe that if you were the only sinner here on earth, He would still have died for you to bring you into His Kingdom.

Together we can break this cycle of assigning little or no worth to ourselves and to other people. Together we can speak positively and edifyingly to those who need to be uplifted. Satan’s great deception has been to devalue us in our own eyes and in the eyes of others. It starts with childhood and it continues all through adulthood.

How can we do this? We can outlaw such words as ‘nobody’, ‘only’, and ‘just’. “I am only the doorman”, or “I am nobody”, or “I am just one of the congregation”. Such words are self deprecating to the point of being a spoken curse upon ourselves. They say that ‘I will not amount to much’ – just as was spoken over you as a child. Rather take the positive attitude that ‘I am the doorman’ or ‘I am a member here’. This is not self promoting. Rather it is self asserting – there is a big difference. Even ‘I am a sinner saved by Grace’ is affirming as it breaks the seal of Satan on you and tells him that he no longer has a hold over your life.

Everyone needs to realise their worth in God and in the world. There is no such thing as a useless person – every single one of us has worth and value to God. Many of us are fortunate enough to have worth and value to friends and family too. With others, say to yourself daily, ‘I am who the Bible, and therefore who God says I am. Nothing can devalue my worth today nor any other day. I am His. He died to save me and to give me eternal life, and it is God who affirms me and makes me of worth in His Kingdom and here on earth.’

Colossians 2:6-7 (Message Bible) “My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You're deeply rooted in him. You're well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you've been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.“

See also Col 2:8-23 (Message Bible) for much more in this vein.

John 10:10 MSG “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.”