Psalm 139:13-18
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.” (Psalm 139:13-18)
You may live with the acute realization of your own finitude and fallenness, but the contemporary assures us that you cannot be truly free and fulfilled if you put a low value on self. A low self-image will ruin it all. But “low” and “high”- who decides? Where is the price list? We need a reality check, for only recognizing true value will liberate and open the way to fulfillment. An inflated view or a deflated view, distorting reality, will surely tie you up tighter than ever and shut out the possibility of fulfillment. But if you measure your worth by what you own, how much fun you are having, and how successful people recognize you to be, you’ve given in to the world’s value system and have doomed yourself to bondage and unfulfillment because those things – no matter how abundant – cannot liberate us nor fill us up. If a therapist persuades me that I really am significant, no matter what those around think about me, such counsel can be permanently liberating only if it’s true. And the truth is that we are worth a lot!
* You are a designer brand. You are valuable not because of what you own or have done but because of how God designed you. He created you on his pattern. You have his insignia stamped on you. You are an image bearer of the Infinite One and that’s impressive, no matter what others may think of you.
*You have a very high sticker price. God himself valued you so highly he paid an outrageous price to buy you back from your slaveholder, your bondage to stuff, fun, and an inflated self-image. You are of infinite worth to God, not for your achievements or possessions, but because he invested in you the life of his own Son.
Those values are shared by all believers, but you have a value no one else shares. You have a unique destiny. God not only created you to bear his family likeness, he not only purchased you with the life of his only Son, but he did so on purpose. He has a purpose for you, something he wants to accomplish on earth through you. No matter how the world or the church may evaluate your contribution, the grand Designer valued you enough to plan your unique role to bring him the greatest possible honor.
That’s why I’m proud to be a homemaker. I try to be the best cook, housekeeper, gardener, and nurse I know how. I’m not the best at any of those, to be sure, but I give it my best because it’s my assignment, God’s purpose for me. And I greatly enjoy it, never fret about what I’d rather be doing, about what might have been. Much less compare my “value” to others with higher callings and greater gifts.
And there’s something more. Worth is often judged by the company a person keeps – royalty, skid row – whatever. And you are a member of high society – the highest! Incredible as it may seem, God has planned your life around him, uninterrupted companionship with the greatest Lover who ever lived.
Talk about self-worth! If that knowledge of who you are in Christ doesn’t liberate and fill life to the full, what will?
Created on the pattern of God, not a monkey.
Purchased by the most precious commodity this world has ever known, the blood of God.
Living a life planned by the master Designer of the planets, the suns, and every atom.
A constant companion of the King of Kings. Indeed, theology can liberate and fill a person full.