You are Worth It

Imagine that you own a very colorful and unique painting. You have had this painting your whole life, and you would like to get it appraised. So you call the painter and a famous art critic to examine the painting. The painter loves his work of art, and he knows it is priceless. However, the critic thinks it is full of flaws and needs immediate changes. He even suggests to you, the owner, to paint over some of the painting. The painter is horrified, and pleads with you not to change a thing, and tries to defend its value. But you ignore the painter, and smear black paint over his masterpiece. Now the painting is nearly unrecognizable.

This is exactly what happens when we assign our self-worth based on the standards set by the world. God, the painter, knows your worth and is determined to remind you of it. But the critic, the enemy, points out all your ‘flaws’ and insists that you need to change. God created a masterpiece; He created us in His image. And He sadly watches as the world tries to devalue His creation. Satan uses the world to change us to match Satan and the world. God designed us to match Him — we do not need to change to match the world. We are the Mona Lisa and the world wants to paint hot pink, caterpillar eyebrows on us.

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:27)

I have found myself questioning my worth lately. And let me tell you, it is not a fun feeling. I often place my self-worth based on the standards set in movies, on Facebook, my grades, and what others think of me. I let the enemy convince me that I am not worthy, and that I am not good enough. If I would only change to match the things of the world then I would be worthy. YEAH RIGHT. I want to match Him, not the world. I realized that my self-worth too often depends on others opinion of me. This leaves me thrown left and right with the ever-changing trends of the world. And even when I determine my own worth, I am left empty and anxious. Our self-worth should not depend on things of this world. Our self-worth should not even depend on what we think of ourselves. Our worth should be completely and utterly dependent on the value God gives us. We have more value than a value meal at McDonalds.

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Luke 12:6-7)

Harm

Not feeling “of value” can lead to self-harm. Harm is not valuing ourselves as God does. Harm is treating yourself like the world would treat you. Harm is Satan’s device to devalue God’s creation. We isolate ourselves and dive down a negative thought rabbit hole. Satan is also known as the accuser, and he spends day and night accusing us. He spends day and night trying to convince us that we are awful and that we smell and that no one likes us. Do not indulge in this negative thinking! Dark thoughts are my biggest indulgence, and I am still learning how to fight the enemy’s accusations. My biggest tool is calling on the Lord, and like I have said previously, declaring the facts. Jesus is Lord! I belong to Him! His thoughts are higher than mine! I reject these thoughts! Go to the pit of fire, Satan! After I declare the facts, I eat a brownie, and walk my puppy. Drinking a Dr. Pepper or rowing a boat is also acceptable.

When you harm yourself you are tarnishing God’s perfect creation; you are becoming less like an image of God, and more like an image of the world. The world is a Chanel purse full of cigarette butts. It seems so pretty but when you look inside and really examine it, the world is straight up U-G-L-Y, ugly. You must “Refuse to let the world corrupt you” (James 1:27) and how you see yourself. Satan sneakily uses the world to diminish how we see ourselves. But God’s view of us has never changed. Even when we sin or when we seem far away— He knows our worth. Too often we hang our worth on worldly things, and it leaves us unsatisfied. But if we saw our worth as God does, we would treat ourselves like the precious works of art we are.

Moses

Moses questioned his worth. He was an old man who was bad at public speaking. You could say he was sheepish! Get it? Anyway, God saw his worth. God saw his value in leading the Israelites out of Egypt, and delivering the law to them.

But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? (Exodus 3:11)

I have similar thoughts all the time. Who am I? Who am I that Jesus died for me? Who am I that He has this crazy love for me? I feel so undeserving. But that does not matter because God says we deserve His love. He wants and needs to love us. God has this crazy, unconditional love for us that seems beyond human understanding. But that’s cool, because we just have to enjoy His love and try to love as hard as He does in return.

God answered Him so simply, “I will be with you”. He lives in us— He gives us worth.

God-worth

We should not be concerned with self-worth. Self-worth is something temporary and of this world. The devil uses our self-worth to toy with us. Be concerned with God-worth: how God values us. Your God-worth will only leave you joyous. How we value ourselves changes like Texas weather, but how God values us never falters.

Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. (Isaiah 43:4)

Think of how much value He gave us on the cross. He died for us! God-worth to infinity! We are hot messes who sin constantly, but He saw the value. He said, they are worth it. They are worth dying on the cross for, and are worth saving. And why would God have spent all that time creating something so-so. He made mountains, rivers, puppies, the whole universe for us! We are worth it to the Creator.

Stop looking to yourself to find your worth. Look at your God-worth. By yourself you are worthless. Look to Him. Look to your companions. Look at His plan. With God our value and worth is eternal, because His plans for us are eternal. He wants us to express Him! He wants to come back to us! He wants us to build up His Church! We are not removed from any part of God’s plan. He needs us. We are so valuable to Him. Looking to your self limits your vision to tomorrow. But looking to God widens your vision to eternity.

Don’t let anyone, especially yourself, treat you as less than God knows you deserve. God loves you. You have value. You have worth that flows into eternity. You are integral to the building up of the Body. Even when the world tells you, you have no worth— remember, God thinks you are worth it.

By: Kolean Gudalj