If someone were to ask you how valuable you were, what kind of things would you turn to in order to demonstrate your value? Some people might look to their net worth as an indication of how valuable they are. Others might look to the relationships they have with people. Still others might look to positions that they hold in life as proof of how valuable they are.
What criteria would you use? To a degree, this tells us a little bit about ourselves. Typically, we would use the criteria which means the most to us. For example, if I am a social person, I might attempt to prove my value by the relationships I have with people, by looking at the number of people I have influenced and what they have done with their lives, or how many people would miss me if I were taken from their life. I might look to the roles that I play in life, such as husband and friend, and point out just how valuable I am to those people.
While these ways of determining our value tells us something about ourselves, it also shows how inwardly focused we can be. After all, who is determining the criteria why which I discover my value? I am. And what criteria am I most likely to use? The one that makes me the most valuable. I'm using what I value most to determine how valuable I am.
There is a greater reality to our lives than this kind of value. There is the value that God has seen in each of us. We are each so dear to Him that He sent His Son to take away our sin and guilt, so that He could claim us as His own. That value is not determined by us, but by the One who created us, and the one who valued us so much that He chose to buy us back to Himself through Jesus and the cross.
In the end, I seem to discover that I would much rather have God determine my value than to determine it myself. It just seems that God's value of me (and of you!) will be inestimably higher than anything I could come up with for myself.
There is a Hebrew word, segolah, which is translated as "treasured possession." That's the word that God uses to describe the people He loves and claims as His own. As it stands, it seems that God truly does place a much greater value on you and I than we ever could on ourselves. Thanks be to God!
What criteria would you use? To a degree, this tells us a little bit about ourselves. Typically, we would use the criteria which means the most to us. For example, if I am a social person, I might attempt to prove my value by the relationships I have with people, by looking at the number of people I have influenced and what they have done with their lives, or how many people would miss me if I were taken from their life. I might look to the roles that I play in life, such as husband and friend, and point out just how valuable I am to those people.
While these ways of determining our value tells us something about ourselves, it also shows how inwardly focused we can be. After all, who is determining the criteria why which I discover my value? I am. And what criteria am I most likely to use? The one that makes me the most valuable. I'm using what I value most to determine how valuable I am.
There is a greater reality to our lives than this kind of value. There is the value that God has seen in each of us. We are each so dear to Him that He sent His Son to take away our sin and guilt, so that He could claim us as His own. That value is not determined by us, but by the One who created us, and the one who valued us so much that He chose to buy us back to Himself through Jesus and the cross.
In the end, I seem to discover that I would much rather have God determine my value than to determine it myself. It just seems that God's value of me (and of you!) will be inestimably higher than anything I could come up with for myself.
There is a Hebrew word, segolah, which is translated as "treasured possession." That's the word that God uses to describe the people He loves and claims as His own. As it stands, it seems that God truly does place a much greater value on you and I than we ever could on ourselves. Thanks be to God!
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