n.
1. The quality that renders something desirable, useful, or valuable: the worth of higher education.
2.. Quality that commands esteem or respect; merit
adj.
1. Deserving of; meriting: a proposal not worth consideration.
I think that everyone desires and works toward finding worth in themselves. I think that it is one of the things that people struggle with most in their life. A lot of the times I believe that after salvation, guilt and shame can be overwhelming - realizing the things you have done that brought glory to nothing, things that harmed you, things that you now realize are sin and that satan takes these things and uses them against you - which begins the process of asking yourself, "How can I be used, how can I be of any worth in His kingdom and to bring Him glory with all of this baggage dragging behind me?"
It is so easy to slide into that vicious cycle of self hatred and doubt because we realize how important it is to be pleasing to Him, to follow His commandments and rules for life that we forget that the past is the past and in Him we are created new - clean in His sight. I have said many times in my walk that I struggle with worth and value. I find so much shame in the things I did before I knew Him, but it is choices that I have made after knowing Him and knowing better that have affected me more as of late.
Christians are the worst judges of other Christians in my opinion. I think that it is like a poison that we take - if we find the bad in others than we won't see the bad in ourselves. Maybe if I focus on the speck in their eye, I won't have to look at the redwood tree coming out of mine...Yea, we all have done it. It makes it worse as we become vocal about our love of Him and others start to point out all of the things that we do that are not Christian or when we let our flesh overtake our heart and do things spur of the moment and then we get questioned on what kind of Christian we really are - WE ARE STILL HUMAN PEOPLE!!!! Yea, I am sure you are wondering if I am going to get to a point and stop rambling, but I think we have to realize the magnitude these things have on the person who is trying to grow and change (and face it, we all make mistakes in our daily life) and how this makes them look at their worth in a negative way.
God doesn't call us to be perfect, but to be better. To do our best to live a life that is pleasing to Him and thank heavens for the cross, because in the moments we are overcome with our flesh, we can come to Him with repentance and be forgiven - the problem is the people around us are not so gracious and we have consequences to our choices and actions - these things we have to deal with, these things can be hard, emotionally draining, daunting and sometimes they can bring up the things that we like least in ourselves. Then there we are back at doubting our worth, wondering if we are worthy of His love and sometimes getting to the point of feeling of worthy of His gift on the cross...the TRUTH is we are all someone WORTH dying for - He desires and loves all of us and what matters is that we have repentance of our mistakes - that we recognize that we have been wrong, that we become aware that when we allow ourselves to act in our flesh that we have to learn from our mistakes - most of that the people around us are not always going to act like Jesus and that we may have consequences to face, but with Him and by being in His word - we can overcome and our redemption is sure...We are not perfect, but we all have a purpose and a worth -
MikesChair has an amazing song to remind us that we are worth His love and death:
"...You are WORTH it... the cross has proven that you're sacred and blameless, your life has purpose..."
We are fearfully and wonderfully made and precious in His sight - even at our worst, He is still there to love us, guide us and help us grow...there is worth in that alone because we are daughters and sons of the King - and we have a God who loves us and found us worthy enough to die for us - knowing everything about you, He still chose to die for you - there is no better worth than what can be found in that kind of love -
This song is one I've struggled with even today actually. I'm not sure I agree that Jesus died because we are worthy. He died for God's glory. The only worth we have is in Jesus...right? I'm not sure I agree with my own statement there. Because I believe every human life has worth. But I guess I'm unclear on the definition of worth (even though you provided one). God is the only one worthy of praise. So I guess, since we are only sinful, my question is what am I worthy of? I'm not worthy for someone to die for me. I didn't deserve it... So I guess it comes down to matter of grace vs. works or grace vs. inherent worth? I'm not sure I can put my confusion into words, but I wish I had more Scripture to study about the topic...Anything you suggest?
ReplyDeleteI don't think any of us are worthy of Him or His death-I guess I contribute worth and purpose as one. It is clear we all have a purpose here-He has commanded us all to be fishers, to bring glory to His name, to worship....and in those things, I find worth because we are part of His kingdom and even though we are undeserving of it, I believe that He has given us purpose and worth to work for His kingdom...I think because He created us and has plans for us, that is what it means to be someone worth dying for-we are His sons and daughters and when we lie a life guided by Him, we know our purpose/worth as we follow his commands and scriptures. Does that make any sense? :-)
DeleteYes... so you could say that worth comes from living a purpose-driven life - with the purpose being to glorify Christ (in general).
ReplyDeleteBut what about nonChristians? Do they have worth? - Yes, because they were created by God.
And when I thought "we have no worth without Christ," I immediately thought of the argument for unborn babies who have worth and "deserve" according to us, to live.
I can say that unbelievers don't have a hope (of heaven or Christ coming), but I don't think that means their lives are worthless. We think people have worth because we give people rights. We are worthy of a certain level of respect and opportunity.
Perhaps, in the kingdom of God we have no worth? And only by Jesus can we obtain (His) worth? I think that works for my mind, haha.
Thanks for listening/reading and responding to my mind's argument with itself.
Another set of good thought and I believe even nonChristians have worth because He can use them to fill His purposes...you really got me thinking now too, but I think that even though they don't have the same hopes as we do, that doesn't make them worthless at least not for me. Too many nonChristians have been driving forces for me to pursue Him and work towards more....
DeleteYep, really got my mind going..