In a world where everything seems to go by your economic status....I found my heart grateful today that our value to God is not like that. It seems like everything in society is based off of how much "you're worth". Oh, we may not say that out loud...that some people are worth more to us than others in our life. Or some people are worth more than others in our community, city, state or nation....but we all put value on people. Unfortunately, we were raised to believe that the more your worth ($$), then the more your worth as a person. This concept goes completely against the way God views us and I felt the Holy Spirit telling me that someone needed to hear that today.
I think because we live in a society like that it is very easy for us to get caught up in the idea that God views people by their worth too. Totally not true! Our value to God is the same...each and every one of us. One of the most famous verses in the bible (John 3:16) points that out to us when it says "whosoever believes in Him.....shall have everlasting life". Whosoever. Not whoever God chooses, not whoever does the best and not even whoever "works" the hardest for God. We often confuse our value, our performance and our service as if they were the same. They are not.
Our value to God never changes. I am not more valuable than anyone else, and the most famous pastor of all time is not more valuable than a man on death row....not to God. Jesus died for one just the same as He did the other.
Our performance is also another misconception. God does not expect us to outperform one another. In fact, I think He frowns upon it. There is one standard to measure yourself to and that is the life of Jesus. And even that can't be measured by performance. Jesus did everything from the heart. So when you are trying to live up to the standard He set, your heart should be the thing you are looking deep into, not your works. When we are focused on our performance, it is usually because of the way we are trying to look in the eyes of someone else, not God.
Our service...now this is an interesting one. This should be one of the freest areas of our life because the only one we offer service up to is God. When we offer God our service it should come straight from the heart. From the smallest things....to the largest things....our service should be done with the attitude of "here am I God, send me". Our attitude toward the service we offer up to God will determine the kind of service we offer up to God. Think about that.....
Then enemy wants us to confuse these 3 things. He wants us to try to "work" our way into God's heart because He knows we will fail time after time. And when we do, we will become more and more down on ourselves and see ourselves less and less valuable to God. Total lies from the enemy....don't buy into it!
Money can buy a lot of things in this world. It can "set" your economic status in the place where you live. It may even make you feel as if "you made it" in this world. But NOTHING...not wealth, not fame, not your own abilities will make you more valuable to God. He loves you as you are, he died for you as you are....BUT, He does not desire for you to stay where you are. See your worth to Him and let that drive you to serve Him from the depths of your heart. Not because it will gain you anything, but because of the absolute love you have for Him!
Thank you God that our value in this world has nothing to do with our value to You! Thank you that Jesus' life, death and resurrection was as much for ANYONE else as it was for me. Help us not find our value in the lies that the enemy tries to get us to believe, but instead find it in just knowing who You have called us to be. In Jesus name, Amen
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