What is the world’s definition of self-worth? How does that hold up to what our Creator, God, and our Savior say?
We have all questioned our value or self-worth at some time in our life. We are not born knowing that we were each handcrafted by the hands of God in our mother’s wombs. (Psalms 139:13) We all start forming our perceived worth from the messages and experiences we have with our parents or caregivers. However, our beliefs can often be worlds apart from God’s truth.
How the World Defines Self-Worth
Webster’s defines value or worth as the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something, and to consider (someone or something) to be important or beneficial; have a high opinion of. Both definitions rely on other imperfect people to deem us deserving or to be important or beneficial. The danger in using this determination of worth is the absence of seeing ourselves in the perfect love, grace, and mercy of our Savior, Jesus, even in our imperfect human condition.
If you grew up hearing and believing that you will “never amount to anything” or other negative lies, and you adopted these beliefs, you may struggle with low self-worth. You may doubt that you could ever be good enough or that you deserve to be respected or loved. These struggles torture you and keep you in pain and blind to seeking the truth of God.
The devil deceives you into believing that the negative lies people have said about you are your worth. If you equate their lies to be your worth, the enemy keeps your mind and emotions in pain. In your pain, you focus on fixing or changing yourself to prove you are valuable.
The problem with this mindset is that you are focused on yourself. The enemy knows if he keeps you self-focused, you will not seek the truth and wisdom of God. Unless you learn what God says and put it into practice in your life every day, you will continue to believe the lies of the enemy and other people.
How Self-Worth is Created by Your Father, God
The Hebrew language gives us a multi-dimensional understanding of the definition of worth in God’s word. Although the word worth has the aspects of evaluation and assessment, it also includes the aspect of respect, editing, arranging, aligning, and outlining. The unique aspect in the Hebrew word worth is the word exponential.
The difference between the context of worth in the Bible and the world comes from who is assessing us. In the Bible, God first established our high worth or value by making us in His image. (Gen. 1:27) He also tells us:
- 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. (John 3:16)
- God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. (Eph. 1:5)
- For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Eph. 2:10, NLT)
The only one who can establish the worth of anything is the one who creates it. God established our worth as His creations long before we ever took a breath. Once we choose to be a disciple of Christ, we are then adopted into God’s family forever, and our worth becomes exponential!
Live as a Child of God and Christ’s Disciple
It’s time for the children of God and the disciples of Jesus Christ to study God’s word and know their true worth established by God. Because we can only operate from what we know, we must learn how priceless we are in God’s and Christ’s eyes. We must change what we know and implement it daily, to do something different.
When you choose to believe lies about your worth according to people, the enemy, or the world, you’re robbing yourself of the opportunity to learn and grow with Jesus. You may get sucked into a dark mindset, depression, and the temptations to escape or dull your pain in self-destructive ways. Stop and proclaim that you are a child of God! You don’t have to live in lies or darkness anymore.
Seek Jesus with all your heart. Ask God to show you his truth, answers, guidance, and healing. Remind yourself of the worth Jesus placed on you when he chose to die for you. Living in Christ means that you will believe what he says and his death over what you have heard or believed in the past. Never forget, you are the handcrafted masterpiece of God and live as Christ’s disciple in your exponential worth!
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