Finding Our Value in Him

What is often the common factor in the following scenarios?

• Having a disagreement with your spouse
• Feeling badly when a boss or coworker says something negative to you
• Feeling disappointed by a parent or loved one
• Spending excessively and falling into debt
• Struggling with perfectionism or workaholism

While not always the case, all of the scenrarios above can often stem from a person trying to find their self-worth from someone or something they were never meant to receive it from. Each of us is born with the need to feel valuable, special and loved. From the time we’re born we look to someone, usually our parents or an authority figure in our lives, to make us feel good about ourselves. We look for their approval, love and acceptance. We also live in a world that tells us our value is based on how we look, how much money we make or what we’ve accomplished and yet nothing is ever enough.

I can personally attest to the struggle of seeking my self-worth and approval from people and things. For many years, I was stuck in this painful trap.  Everything suffered –  my finances, my relationships, and even my health. If someone I cared about was upset with me or disagreed with me or didn’t say just the right thing I felt despair. I questioned my value. It hindered me from having healthy relationships. I was also caught in the trap of seeking success and basing my self-worth on my performance and accomplishments. Thankfully the pain and brokenness caused me to seek God for healing and this helped me to discover who I am in Christ. Today I’m free! Maybe you can relate to this same struggle. I believe every human being has struggled with this and many still do, whether they admit it or not.

This is because each of us has been created with a God-shaped void only He can fill. Colossians 1:16 tells us that we were created by God and for God. In the beginning, man was in perfect communion with God. There was no empty void. Then sin was allowed in and that relationship became broken. Man became fractured and so did his life. Relationships suffered. Emotions suffered. The physical body suffered. But God!! He made a way through Jesus for our relationship with God to be restored. The veil was torn and no longer was man separated from God. Once again, communion with God was possible and the void inside each of us could be filled with Him.

Hebrews 4:16 says:

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Every day we have need of Him and because of Jesus we can come boldly and receive what only God can give us. In Him we discover the value and worth that only comes from receiving our Heavenly Father’s unfailing love and acceptance of us. But again, as Hebrews says, “Let us come…” That means it’s a choice we make. We do this by spending time with God in His Word and in prayer and worship of Him so we can discover who God says we are and embrace it so that our self-worth is based on Him alone.

People may hurt or disappoint us, but when we base our value on the truth that we are God’s beloved, we won’t be shaken by others opinions like we once were. No longer will we look to people or things to meet a need inside of us that only God can fill. We’ll find a deep inner satisfaction and know this can only come from God. So let us come boldly each and every day and allow the truth of God’s Word to saturate our hearts and minds so that we know that we know our value is in Him alone.