April 9, 2009
Worthless into Precious, Part 1
Gwen Smith
Today's Truth
"You are precious and honored in my sight..." (Isaiah 43:4a, NIV).
Friend to Friend
Last winter, I bought my daughter a really cute jacket at the mall.
It's a hoodie that's made of a cuddly fabric with cream, lavender, and
mint green horizontal stripes. The jacket zips up in the front and is
well crafted, stylish, and simply adorable.
When I bought it, I felt like the price on the tag was a fair one, so
I gladly pulled out my wallet and paid the retail amount. I was like
a kid in a candy store on the way home. I fully anticipated a shriek
of happiness from my little bag of beans when I gave it to her.
Delightfully, I wasn't disappointed. Kennedy loved her new coat, and I
was pleased with my purchase. Happy dances all around...until a week
later, when I saw the same jacket in the same store at a greatly
reduced price. Are you tensing up with me? Suddenly, I felt
schnookered! Ripped off. Taken advantage of. As soon as I saw the
red line on the price tag of the unsold coats, everything changed --
Kennedy's jacket wasn't worth what I paid for it.
When we speak of the worth of something, we often consider it a
relative term - one that has shifting factors. For example: last week
the cute jacket was thirty-nine dollars, and now it's nineteen
ninety-nine. The jacket didn't change, but its perceived worth did.
Now, consider the worth of a woman. Are the factors that determine
her value based upon variable, shifting factors or are they based upon
fixed factors? Seems to be a silly question, doesn't it? Fixed, of
course! But, if the answer is so glaringly obvious, why do we
struggle so much as women with feeling worthless? Why do we walk
around feeling like that red lined jacket? I think it's because we
often allow variable earthly factors to define our worth.
What kind of variable factors?
There are so many reasons why women feel worthless:
Ø Because they've been abused (raped, molested, physically
abused, verbally abused...)
Ø Because they've been told that they're worthless (by a parent,
spouse, sibling, teenage child, or another...)
Ø Because of choices they've made (divorce, infidelity, abortion,
promiscuity, eating disorders, addictions, uncontrolled anger...)
Ø Because they've been cheated on (infidelity, internet affair,
pornography...)
Ø Because they're co-dependent (conclude their value based upon
other people -- "If my husband isn't okay, I'm not okay.")
Ø Because they don't collect a paycheck (stay at home moms that
have left the work force, laid off employees, displaced employees,
those on disability...)
Ø Because they've battled an illness (unable to care for family,
perform basic home duties, participate in ministry or Bible study like
they once did, can't drive, cook...)
Unfortunately, the variable factors that we use to define our worth
are endless. Many of us feel worthless. Why? We've felt ignored,
invisible, insignificant, useless, undesired, ugly, unloved, or
forgotten. We girls are emotional, broken in many ways. Great
portions of our identity and of our personal value are wrapped into
combustible packages of emotion...how we feel about this or that. The
truth is, our worth has nothing to do with our feelings.
Trust me! I am not going to try to convince you that I know
everything there is to know about feeling like a woman of worth. Or
about being a woman of worth. I am in the trenches with you. I
struggle with normal woman things. I don't live a fancy schmancy,
rose-colored wonder-life. I hit the snooze button several times each
morning. I pack lunches for my kids. I spend countless hours of my
life each year sitting in the car pool line. It's a never-ending
struggle for me to keep the laundry cleaned, and my kids often have to
fish for a matching pair of socks in the clean-clothes basket. My
husband is my soul mate, but is far from perfect. For that matter,
Brad should win a lifetime achievement award for enduring the drama of
me! And my kids bring me both great joy and great frustration on a
daily basis.
Is this sounding at all familiar to you?
See -- I'm just like you, and I'm walking this faith journey right
beside you. In fact, the more I know God, the less inclined I am to
pretend to have life or faith figured out. Amen? I'm constantly
tempted to define my worth with activities, emotions, and
accomplishments. I've come to realize, however, that way of thinking
is a spiritual dead end road. Scripture tells us that anything we do
in our own strength or of our own goodness is of no value to God.
"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous
acts are like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6a, emphasis mine).
What I do know is this: because of Jesus Christ, I'm a woman of
highest worth. Not because of anything else. I'm a grace girl. Not
perfect by a long stretch. I've been changed by the unconditional love
of God and restored to perfect beauty through the shed blood of Jesus.
Because of love, we are His daughters, precious in His sight. In
light of this, we need to set aside feelings that diminish our value,
and embrace our proper identity: child of the King of Kings.
Hear this, friend: feelings of worthlessness are from Satan himself.
It burns me up that the enemy has such a strong grip on God's
daughters in this area. We need to associate the word worthless with
the word lie. That's exactly what it is, a big, fat lie! I talk to
women all the time who bend a knee to negative feelings and live
defeated lives because they don't quite know how to overcome their
sense of worthlessness. God wants every one of us to experience
healing and have an appropriate sense of self-worth.
So let's go back to Kennedy's new coat for just a moment. Imagine
walking into God's department store. There on the rack, you spy a
coat that is just plain fabulous -- I mean, stop-you-in-your-tracks
fabulous! One-size fits all, the tag reads. Yeah, right, you whisper
under your breath. Then you flip over the price tag and it's crazy
expensive. Way beyond what you could ever dream of paying...like, if
you added up every dollar that ever passed through your hands -- then
multiplied that by ten thousand -- that kind of expensive. Then
imagine the storeowner walking over to you, slipping the coat off the
rack and onto your shoulders.
"It's a perfect fit," He smiles.
"Sir," you manage with a whisper, "I could never afford such a coat.
This is meant for royalty and I'm, well, just an ordinary girl."
"Oh precious woman, this coat is made especially for you, and the
price has already been paid in full."
As the owner straightens the sleeves on your arms and adjusts the
collar around your neck, you notice his hands...nail pierced hands.
And suddenly you realize that this is the covering you were meant to
wear all along.
You see, the Bible tells us that because of what Jesus did on the
cross, we can be clothed with the "robe of righteousness." The
apostle Paul tells us that when we are reconciled to God, we become
His righteousness. "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so
that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians
5:21). There's no way we could ever afford or earn such a robe. But
Jesus gave His life for us - He earned it for us. He paid the price
and we receive the gift. Why? Because you're worth it. You are
precious and highly valuable in the eyes of the One who sees. And you
never, never, never have to worry about being on anyone's bargain rack
again.
Let's Pray
Holy Father, I'm humbled at the very thought that I could be viewed as
precious in Your eyes. Thank You for taking on my sin so that I could
take on your righteousness. Please help me to see myself as You see
me. Help me to thrive in Your beauty!
In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Now It's Your Turn
What came to your mind as you read today's devotion? Grab your
journal and write about it.
Are you held captive by feelings of worthlessness? Spend a few
moments in prayer and ask God to reveal truth to your heart about how
He sees you.
Print or write out this verse: "I will not forget you. Behold, I have
inscribed you on the palms of my hands" (Isaiah 49:15-16, NASB). Set
it to memory and allow it to serve as a reminder that you are precious
to God.
"Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray,
believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24).
No comments:
Post a Comment