Many of us walk around feeling unworthy. We try so hard on the outside to exuberate confidence, but inside we have feelings of not being good enough. We live in a world where we mindlessly scroll through social and see other people that tell us what we feel we need in order to be worthy. We are told what kind of car to drive, what clothes to wear to stay trendy, or what career status we need in order to have value.
We walk around not feeling pretty enough, skinny enough, smart enough, funny enough, or simply put – just not good enough. Because we feel these things, we view ourselves with low worth and live our lives from this place of scarcity too. Somewhere in your life, you believed you were not worthy. Perhaps it was words that other people such as your parents or an ex spoke over you, and you have believed these things about you and this is what you base your worth on. Your worth should be based on the Source (God Himself), and not the other resources around you (the world). If God didn’t tell you it, then it’s a lie. For God is truth, and anything other than a truth is a lie from the enemy as Jesus gave him the name the “father of lies" in John 8:44. Satan told the first lie in recorded history to Eve in the Garden of Eden, and he continues to trip us up with the same tactics – through lies that we have no worth.
But I have hopeful news for you! You are actually worth so much that if you begin to see yourself full of worth that is priceless, you can begin changing the way you think about yourself and begin to live life from a new perspective. Below is a starting point for you to discover and understand what your worth truly is as a follower of Christ and from His perspective – what He knows you are worth:
“…for you formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous are Your work, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed, and in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious are your thoughts to me, O God, how great is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:13-17)
God loves us so much and this is what our worth should be based on. He created us as He knit each fabric of who we are intentionally and with purpose. He knows our deepest thoughts and yet somehow He still loves us. How amazing is that?
The enemy wants us to believe the complete opposite. He feeds us lies that we are not intentionally made and that we must be a mistake. He tells us we are horribly flawed, not worthy of love, nor acceptable or truly forgiven. But the truth of Scripture tells us that we are created by Christ and are His very own “masterpiece”. (Ephesians 2:10). For “we are the clay and He is the Potter, and the work of His very own hand." (Isaiah 64:8)
Our identity and worth need not be mistaken any longer. Our identity is found in Christ as our Maker. We are indeed loved, unique, and made custom by our Creator. We know the truth now of who we really are and can stand firm that our worth is based on what God says about us and not what the enemy tries to place on us.
“For you were bought at a price…” (I Corinthians 6:20)
Think of the most expensive thing you’ve bought over your lifetime. Perhaps it was an engagement ring, a house, a car, or that once-in-a-lifetime trip you took. You saw value in purchasing it, and therefore, you paid the price to do so. In the same way, God views our worth as so high that He paid the ultimate price. It wasn’t paid through money, as we were not “redeemed with corruptible things, like silver and gold…but with the precious blood of Christ…” (I Peter 1:18-19)
Our worth is so valuable that God sent His very own son to die a brutal death on the cross to redeem us from living a life without Him (John 3:16). Meditate on that for a moment. He paid the price of His very own life because He saw our value as something that was worth the price.
It’s important to remember this because we will walk around with the price tag we see ourselves valued at. If we see ourselves with little worth and a low-price tag, we will live this way. To the one reading this right now – no matter what you have been through – you are worth so much more than the price tag you have placed on yourself. You have been purchased by God who saw that you are worth far more than you see for yourself, so He bought you at a high cost to prove it. You were purchased by the very blood of Jesus so that you could “live your life and live it abundantly” (John 10:10) with the full assurance of your incredibly high worth.
“As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12)
So many of us don’t know our worth because we base our worth on what we have done in the past. Perhaps we lived a life of sin or we have broken every single one of the 10 commandments. I’m here to tell you that you are not what you have done. And Jesus Himself was a living example of this truth.
When Jesus walked the earth for a short 33 years, He went to save the lost, those most would consider not worthy. He didn’t go to the wealthy, the healthy, and the bountiful plenty. Oh, no, he went to the outcasts, the sinners, the sick, and the diseased, all of whom were considered unclean and unwanted during that time. He pursued women and those of other faiths and religions. He redeemed those with little value or that went against the norm according to society in those days. He not only went to those deemed unworthy by others, but He intentionally sought them out.
In John 4, the Bible tells the story of when Jesus took a detour in His ministry to seek out a woman at the well. Not just any woman, but a Samaritan woman disregarding the social rules of His day. She was a woman with a shameful past. She thirsted after her worth from men. She went from husband to husband in search of her worthiness. In fact, the Bible tells us she had had five husbands and was living with another man that was not her husband (John 4: 18). She was so shunned by society and had no worth among others that she practically shunned herself. She went to the well to retrieve water at the hottest part of the day simply so that she would not be seen by others.
And this is exactly where Jesus met her. He met her to redeem her and set her free from her past.
He told her “whoever drinks of this water [the world] will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a foundation of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4: 13) Jesus knew of her past and searched for her anyways. Her worth might have been low to the world, but not according to the Lord. What a love like this! She then ran back into the city shouting from the rooftop proclaiming she had been set free as she just met the Messiah. (I John 4:39)
The Lord forgives us too, and in fact, He not only forgives our past but “He remembers them no more” (Hebrews 8:12). Our worth is not based on what we have done, thank you, Father. Let’s begin to allow the Lord to forgive us, and then we must forgive ourselves for the past also. Let’s walk in the same freedom and unconditional worth that the Samaritan woman once did.
“In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” (Ephesians 1:11)
What would change about the status of your current spiritual, mental, and emotional well-being if you believed this verse to be true? If you actually lived your life walking around with a substantial spiritual inheritance that belonged to you?
In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he doesn’t just talk about God’s love in creating us and offering us bounds of redemption and forgiveness. But he also talks about how we have also received a vast and lavish inheritance – another gift from our God that we did not earn and do not deserve. What a truth to live by! We need to stop walking around this life with no worth, living below our spiritual status where we have a beautiful inheritance waiting for us. We no longer have to walk around feeling worthless and acting worth less than we really are. We have a rich spiritual status, and it’s a status we never lose such as losing a job here on earth. This is a status that lasts for eternity. We are blood-bought, chosen daughters of the “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (1 Timothy 6:15). We are a part of a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession” (I Peter 2:9). With an immeasurable inheritance waiting for us. Meaning, it cannot be measured. Meaning, we can live this life with a worth that is at the highest of scales. Allow this truth of God’s promise to sink deep into your heart today.
Romans 8:17 echoes the inheritance promise by saying, “if children, then heirs – heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” You see, we are heirs of God. Stop and reflect on that for a moment. We are a beneficiary of the most powerful, boundless, wealthiest, eternal inheritance of all time. We are royalty and nothing can take that away. We can walk in this kind of abundant worth today because God told us to.
So, what’s your worth? It’s a worth so unexplainable that it cannot be measured. In a world where everything is measured from our waistline to our income, one thing that can never be measured is the value and worth we have in God’s eyes. Be encouraged to live in the truth of this today.
Photo Credit: Pexels/Ismael Sanchez
Alisha Headley is a writer + speaker who has a desire to meet the everyday woman in her everyday life with biblical truth. Stepping into her true calling, she left the corporate world behind as a former-financial VP to love on her family as a stay-at-home wifey + dog mama, while also being able to pursue her passion as a writer. Healing from a chapter of life consumed with lies she once believed about herself, she is inspired to point women to Christ to experience the freedom + power to overcome those lies with the truth written in God’s word. In her free time, Alisha enjoys road trips around the country, working out so she can eat her favorite foods, and creatively styling her outfits with a craft for fashion. Alisha is a proud wifey and dog mama living in Scottsdale, Arizona.
You can follow her blog by visiting her website or connect with her on facebook + instagram.