Dearly Loved

 
 

 
 
Do you remember in the beginning of Aladdin when the merchant is trying to convince us all of the value in a junkie looking lamp?
 
 
I have trouble seeing my value to God. This might not seem like such a big deal. I mean, there’s little “blip in the universe” me, and then
there’s the almighty God. Seems like a pretty tipped scale, right?
 
Here’s the problem, though – if I don’t have confidence in my worth to God, it can cause fractures in the foundation of my faith and trust in Him.
 
I tend to go back to my parental framework to clear up any misgivings I have in my spiritual life. For example, I pour my whole self into my kids. There’s nothing that they need that I don’t do my best to provide. My love for them is ferocious, even to the point of sacrificing my life for theirs.
 
I don’t question my love for my children. It’s a given. They didn’t come out of me with a price tag. One isn’t more valuable than the other. They are priceless, and their individual worth was sealed from the moment I knew they were on their way.
 
So here’s the million dollar question…how much am I truly worth?
 
There’s no question of His love for me. It’s a given.

I have loved you with an everlasting love… Jeremiah 31:3

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

My worth was sealed by a God who knew me before I was born.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you… Jeremiah 1:5

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:13-16

God pours everything into me, holding nothing back.

For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Psalm 84:11

There’s nothing I need that God won’t provide.

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7:11

God’s love for me is fierce, even to the point of dying for me.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32

The more I am able to be confident in my value to God, the stronger my walk with Him.
 
I challenge you to know your worth!

…and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge… Ephesians 3:19

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God… Ephesians 2:8

What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet. Hebrews 2:6-8

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Matthew 6:26

Bottom line, Jesus loves you so much, you can’t comprehend it. There’s nothing you can do to earn it. In the great scheme of things you’re worth a heck of a lot more than a flock of seagulls, and just a smidge under an angel.
 
Yeah, I think I can live with that!