“You are worthy. I value you. I will do anything for you. I love you!” – God
I have heard a lot of Christians say, “I am not worthy. I am not worthy of God’s love,” or something of that nature. Unfortunately, I picked up that belief and spoke those words over myself. Maybe you have to. Maybe the “I’m-not-worthy-bug” has bitten you, as well.
Is that what God has to say? Does God say we are unworthy? Absolutely not!
Let’s see the heart of our Creator through His Word.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life,” John 3:16, NASB.
Do you see the value He has placed on us? He gave His precious, perfect Son for us! God the Father is saying, “You have value! So much value that I will send my beloved Son to rescue you! I am on a mission to rescue my prized possession — My love, My joy, My creation, My children!”
What is the perfect Son’s response? He chose to come and sacrifice His body for us. He is in agreement with God the Father. Jesus also communicates to us that we are worth it, that we are highly valued by God. He demonstrates that there is nothing He won’t do for us. He gives everything up for us.
“Christ Jesus, who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross.” Phil 2:5-8.
His death brought redemption, restoration, reconciliation, adoption into God’s family, and more.
“By His wounds we are healed,” Isa 53:5.
“See how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God; and in fact we are,” 1 John 3:1.
Man does not establish our worth. God does. And He communicates clearly, “You are worthy. I value you. I will do anything for you. I love you!”
Why then do Christians say, “I am not worthy?”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (number 208) states, “Faced with God’s fascinating and mysterious presence, man discovers his own insignificance.” When we see God and all that He is, we are overwhelmed! Then, we look at ourselves and see huge differences. God is holy, righteous, pure, glorious, majestic, loving, merciful, and so much more. It is clear to us how significantly short we fall in comparison. Our response is that we are not worthy. We don’t even come close. Humbled by His perfection, we see our imperfection.
The Catechism goes on to explain, “But because God is holy, he can forgive the man who realizes that he is a sinner before him: ‘I will not execute my fierce anger . . . for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst’ (Hos 11:9). The apostle John says likewise: ‘We shall . . . reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything’ (1Jn 3:19-20).”
May we always remember that when our hearts condemn us, God’s love and mercy are greater than our hearts. We must meditate on the truth: God created us, formed us, chose us, and redeemed us. We are His beloved. He says, “I have called you by name, you are mine” (Isa 43:1).
Before the Creator spoke life into existence, He knew all that would happen. He knew our free will would result in The Fall. Our loving God wrote the Redemption Story before time began. God’s Story is a Beautiful Love Story. He loves us so much. God gave us free will, knowing the price He would have to pay for us to truly be free. So, we must live in the freedom He bought for us. We must not live in self-condemnation. Condemnation builds a wall that keeps His love out. The wall comes down when we live in the truth.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I need to humble myself under God by believing Him. I need to stop buying the lies I am telling myself and start believing the beautiful things He declares over me.
God says to me and to you, “You are loved, adored, valued… and you are worthy. Believe Me!”