Self-Worth and God

Our culture’s message is that our value is proportional to our production. We readily adopt that standard because we see it operating everywhere.

Professional baseball players who hit many home runs make more money than those who hit few. The Philadelphia Eagles professional football team rewarded Saquon Barkley’s outstanding season with a two-year, $41.2 million contract extension.  He is the highest-paid running back in NFL history.1 When I picked strawberries by the quart box as a teenager at a local orchard, those who picked the most were paid the most.

Not everyone agrees that self-worth is proportional to production. Michael Arterberry wrote that we are more than what we do. We are how we listen, show up, and offer presence, not just how we perform. He thinks honoring our values, having intact relationships, and having peace of mind matter most.

He wrote, “Your worth is not up for debate. You were valuable before you ever checked a single box.”2 Our value shouldn’t be confused with how we perform, but he doesn’t explain why. It must be based on more than his say-so. It is!

It is based on God’s say-so, and He doesn’t lie (Numbers 23:19). Because He made us in His image, we are worthy of respect and honor, must not be murdered (Genesis 9:6, Exodus 20:19) or cursed (James 3:9). He delegates His authority over creation to humanity (Genesis 1:26-27).

We are worth more to God than a whole flock of sparrows (Matthew 10:29-31). The truth that God cares about us should dissolve our fears and be the bedrock foundation of our self-worth. He wasn’t hesitant to show it.

God demonstrated how valuable we are by sacrificing His Son, Jesus Christ, to deliver us from the kingdom of darkness and adopt us as His children by grace through faith (John 1:12). His Son’s life was of ultimate value. The Father paid the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God, to get us (1 Peter 1:19). That is the ultimate statement of our worth.

We become God’s heirs and heirs of His glory (Romans 8:17). God shares His glory only with the worthy, and He makes His adopted children that.

God uniquely constructs every person, knitting them in their mother’s womb, incomprehensibly complex beings. He records their days in His book before their birth (Psalm 139:13-16). That sounds like they matter to Him a lot.

Our culture’s shaping of our thinking tempts us to conclude that our spiritual fruit or production measures our worth to God. It doesn’t. God rewards us for faithfully carrying out His assignments (Matthew 25:23).

It is easier for me to bear spiritual fruit in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia than in Pennsylvania because the spiritual soil there is far more receptive to the seeds I sow. God cares only about my faithfulness in both fields. Faithfully sowing seeds that bear fruit in Africa is no more praiseworthy than faithfully sowing seeds in my home state that don’t.

Only God makes spiritual seeds grow and mature (1 Corinthians 3:7). We might bear fruit, but we don’t produce it. God does (John 15:5). See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians. #freediscipleshipresources #freeevangelismresources #freechristianleadershipresources 

1.     Sources - Eagles reward Saquon Barkley with $41.2M extension - ESPN

2.     (19) You’re More Than What You Produce | LinkedIn

See free spiritual growth resources for Christians at https://www.christiangrowthresources.com.

God has empowered me to write “His Power for Your Weakness—260 Steps Toward Spiritual Strength.” It’s a free, evangelistic, devotional, and discipleship eBook. Pastors have used it in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia to lead more than 4,450 people to Christ and teach the basics of Christianity to 11,798 people. I invite you to check it out.

https://www.christiangrowthresources.com/his-power-for-your-weakness

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