You’ve made some tough mistakes in the past. Are you worth loving? You’ve lost your job. Does that lower your value? You aren’t the most popular blogger. Does that mean you don’t matter?

We all have aspects of our lives that we base our worth and value in — success, money, popularity, beauty, athleticism, health, gifts and talents, etc. What happens when those things are gone? It is inevitable that you grow old and lose your “beauty”, it is inevitable that you eventually lose your ability to work, so does that mean it is inevitable that you become worthless? 

I’ve been reading the book “Searching for Significance” and it has made me more aware of some of the destructive thoughts that creep into my head. You really don’t realize how much damaging self-talk you do to yourself until you stop and think about it. I find myself constantly comparing myself to others in my appearance, my abilities, and my success — making my value dependent on my actions and the opinion of others. With that mentality, I continue to eagerly strive for perfection and acceptance while fearing the times of public failure and essentially the loss of my self-worth and significance. 

What I feel like I have forgotten, as do most people, is the fact that our worth is not in what we do or in what we look like.
“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” – 1 Samuel 16:7

If it was so, again just like what I said previously, we are doomed then to become worthless. So then how can we prevent this from happening? What then can we say our identity lies in that is sustaining and healthy?

The only way we we never lose value is if our identity lies in Jesus Christ. 

Romans 8:38-39 says “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future,nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We forget that we are loved unconditionally. We forget that Christ paid our price in death. We forget that He is calling us to live in Him and have an identity in Him that is complete.

Let us not forget. 

“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” – Ephesians 1:4-7

—-

Have a blessed weekend!