A Prayer for When You Feel Unworthy
By Lindsay Snyder
We must learn to receive His love, because we love only because He has first loved us - 1 John 4:19
Unworthiness! I didn’t know you had a name. I thought you were my thoughts; you have lied to me for a really long time.
I took you on, unworthiness, as my identity, and didn’t even know it.
I never knew you could be so destructive, lie so deeply about who I was. I am going to tell on you now, so you can’t lie to others like you did to me.
Six things to remember when you are dealing with the LIE of unworthiness:
1. We have to know deep down that God REALLY does loves us!
I know, I know, God loves us, it’s sounds so cliché. But why is it so hard to remember? Why does it seem distant and hard to really grab onto sometimes? Probably because the idea of an intangible, seemingly busy God loving us doesn’t make a lot of sense. But I challenge you to think about it like a real relationship.
We must learn to receive His love, because we love only because He has first loved us (1 John 4:19).
2. We have to know deep down that He is for us.
As life continues to beat us up, we have to remember that life will do that, but He is for us, He is our refuge, our strength, our ever present help in time of need (Psalm 46:1) He is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), His Spirit is kindness, love, self-control, joy, peace, gentleness and patience (Galatians 5:22-23).
3. We have to know deep down that God is good.
The kindness of God is what leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4); it is His kindness in the middle of our mess that we need to look for and be thankful for and keep at the forefront of our hearts. We need to see the good in our life and yes, sometimes that means fighting to see it.
4. We have to pray to let Him have His way.
We pray and ask for our desires, and then we release and surrender our will to His perfect will. Yes, that sweet and super hard way of surrender: reminding ourselves of God’s faithfulness in our past and grabbing onto Hope Himself for our future. We did our part, we asked, knocked and sought our way and our will, and now, we say “God, you know best, so your way not mine.”
5. We have to let others speak into our lives without being offended. And then ask God, is there anything to learn here?
Funny how God can speak through seemingly small situations. I encourage you to seek the learning, look and listen in every situation for what He might want to show you, to free you from.
6. We have to believe that we are adopted by a perfect Heavenly Father, who deems us worthy.
We are adopted and grafted into a family of royalty; seriously, that is in the Bible. We are a co-heir with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We are worthy because He deems us worthy. We are valuable because of who our Daddy is, no matter what the ‘dust people’ on this earth say about us.
If you’re struggling to feel worthy today, here is a prayer you can pray:
Lord, I know that Your Word tells me that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I know I am your child; I know that I am saved by your grace. You are kind, good, merciful and gracious, and because You are all of those things, I know You are all of those things for me. When I feel unworthy, help me stop looking at and comparing myself to others, but fix my gaze on You. Through You I will always see my worth clearly. Thank you for your gracious love toward me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen!
Editor’s Note: Portions of this have been excerpted from 6 Truths to Combat the Lies of Feeling Unworthyby Lindsay Snyder. You can read her piece in full here.
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Originally published Sunday, 07 July 2019.