Worth

Luke 12:4-7 (The Message)

"I'm speaking to you as dear friends. Don't be bluffed into silence or insincerity by the threats of religious bullies. True, they can kill you, but then what can they do?

There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands.

"What's the price of two or three pet canaries? Some loose change, right?

But God never overlooks a single one.

And he pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don't be intimidated by all this bully talk.

You're worth more than a million canaries.

So, how much are you worth?

I've often heard a good old down-home phrase used by my grandparents for someone with an inflated ego:

"If you could buy him for what he's worth, but sell him for what he thinks he's worth...you'd make a million dollars."

I've also heard scientists say that the basic physical elements and chemicals in a human body can all be purchased easily for a few dollars. I don't know if that's true, but it certainly brings into clear focus what "value" is all about.

Value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

We tend to worry a lot about whether our kids will have a positive self-image. We worry about whether they will be confident and sure of their talents and abilities.

What I've learned over the years is that a person's sense of self-worth is not nearly as important as an unshakable faith in their God-worth.

Our worth is assigned by the one who made us. God's love, which cannot be earned, and is absolutely infinite.

What would change in your life, if you truly, totally, believed that the maker of heaven and earth knows the very number of hairs on your head? (And mine changes from hour to hour!)

How much confidence would you have? How could you respond to adversity? What would be possible?

It's true.

Prayer: Help our unbelief. Teach us to trust you, to know you as Father, and to believe that you love us unconditionally. Give us a sense of God-confidence, God-worth.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end. Amen.