According to a recent study published by Grand Rapids Counseling Services, 85% of the world’s population is affected by low self-worth. When you realize that there are approximately 8 billion people on the planet, that means that around 6.8 billion of them don’t recognize their true worth.
Perhaps you’re among that number. Maybe you feel like you’re the least successful person in your friend group.
Do you ever look at the jobs your friends have, the homes they live in, the cars they drive, and the vacations they take and feel like you’re just not stacking up? Perhaps you look at your life and beat yourself up. Did you think you’d be “further ahead” at this point in your life?
These are examples of negative self-worth.
The Bible is clear about the fact that God is passionate about His people. When we embrace the fact that He is the true Source of our self-worth, it becomes easier to overcome the negative things that we think about ourselves and the negative words that we use to describe ourselves.
Discover more about the things that God says about you. Doing so opens the door for you to embrace the identity that He has for you. God says you’re worth it, and that means more than anything else in the world.
The Greatest Gift
John 3:16 (NIV)
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
While we’re certainly going to look at other verses that affirm the fact that you are valuable in the eyes of God, it’s worth starting here. This passage declares exactly what God thinks about every human who has ever lived or will ever live.
Thousands of years ago, God created humanity. We’re going to look at that in more detail in a moment, but there’s something that went on “behind the scenes” that must be considered.
When God made humans, He knew that we were going to sin. He knew that we would be tempted and that we would miss the mark from time to time.
He could have just canceled the entire thing. Instead of going forward with humans, God could have created more angels who would have simply worshiped Him continuously.
Instead, He wanted to create humans who had free will. He wanted to create a being that could choose between accepting Him and rejecting Him. He wanted you!
God put the plan for salvation in place before Adam ever took his first breath. God, not limited by the concept of time, had already seen into the future and was fully aware that Adam was going to sin. He also knew that we were going to sin thousands of years after Adam did.
That’s why He created the plan of salvation that would take place thousands of years after Adam when Christ died on the cross and rose again on the third day.
In Revelation 13:8, Jesus is referred to as the “Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world.” That means that when God made the world in Genesis 1-2, the decision had already been made regarding the sacrifice of Christ.
Driven by nothing more than His unbridled love for you, God declared that you are worth it when He set the wheels into motion for you to be saved.
Made in God’s Image
Genesis 1:26-27 (NIV)
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Psalm 139:14-15 (NIV)
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
The issues that people struggle with surrounding their self-worth often involve physical appearance. While there is nothing wrong with wanting to take care of yourself, drop a few pounds, or get in better condition, it’s important that you don’t become so focused on the physical attributes that you’d like to change that you fail to recognize your self-worth and true value.
Humanity was made in the image of God. While this doesn’t mean that God has the same physical traits that we do (no one has ever seen God’s face and lived), we do know that Christ came into the world in a human form.
Additionally, the Bible teaches us that there was nothing extraordinarily attractive about His physical appearance. Instead, Jesus was a normal-looking individual (Isaiah 53:1).
David was another individual whose physical appearance was talked about in Scripture. While he was described as a “handsome young man with beautiful eyes,” (1 Samuel 16:12), he was also kind of a runt.
When the prophet came to anoint a new king for Israel, Jesse, David’s father, didn’t even consider bringing little David in from the field. Instead, he paraded his older, taller, more muscular sons out to the prophet.
Yet David described himself as “fearfully and wonderfully made.” You don’t have to look like your favorite movie star, professional athlete, model, or musician in order to be fearfully and wonderfully made. God created every intricate detail about you from the inside out.
That makes you worth it!
God’s Verdict: Not Guilty
Romans 8:1-4 (NIV)
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
We often define ourselves by our accomplishments. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with being confident in your abilities or being proud of the things you’ve accomplished, it’s important not to let those things define who you are as a person.
If your accomplishments define you, it’s easy to let your failures do the same thing. That means that while you may consider yourself a success because of your accomplishments, you may also fall into the trap of considering yourself a failure because of things that you get wrong.
Paul declared that condemnation does not exist in the life of the believer. There is no condemnation because of your relationship with Christ Jesus. While Satan is described as an “accuser” (Revelation 12:10) he does not have the power to condemn.
He can accuse, but God, as the Final Judge of all humanity, declares that you are not guilty. It’s not because of anything that you’ve done, but because of the finished work of Christ on the cross.
God’s declaration that you’re worth it means that you’re not guilty. You’re not defined by what you’ve done, but you are defined by what He did.
A Closing Prayer:
Heavenly Father, help me overcome the negative sense of self-worth that I’m struggling with. I know that my value isn’t found in anything that I’ve done, right or wrong. Instead, my self-worth is based on Your gift of salvation through Your Son. In Christ’s name, Amen.