WHAT ARE YOU WORTH TO GOD?
“‘What’s the price of two or three pet canaries? Some loose change, right? But God never overlooks a single one. And He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail – even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries.'” Luke 12:6,7.
We ordinary folks often struggle with a feeling of unworthiness. What am I really worth to God? I know my own heart and I feel unworthy of His love. This feeling takes us a step further into thinking, ‘God is so big and so ‘busy’ that I am too insignificant to bother Him with my petty issues.’
How does God feel about that? Let’s examine that kind of thinking from God’s perspective. Firstly, we argue, God is so big; I am so small. Why should He bother with me? Wrong! It’s not our size that gives us value but what God has invested in us. He put His breath inside of us – created in His image with the potential to reflect Him to the creation around us.
What does that mean?
Because He made us and put His life and nature in us, we are able to put Him on display by treating people like He treats us – ‘gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and full of love and faithfulness’ (Exodus 34:6). The fact that sin has distorted that image does not take away from God’s original purpose.
Secondly, it’s not what I do but what God has done that gives us value. He paid the price of His own blood to redeem us from the slave-market of sin and death. He is busy restoring his image in us. That puts a value on us higher than He put on His own life. Jesus traded His life for ours to get us back from our own self-destructive ways.
Thirdly, our value lies in the reason for our existence. God created mankind to be His family because of His love. We messed up, sure, but God is well able and is working to put His plan back on track. His Holy Spirit is active on earth to woo people back to God and to restore His image in us for His glory.
Fourthly, because we feel unworthy does not mean that God thinks we are unworthy. We are making a big mistake by projecting our own feelings on to God. It is the devil’s ploy to distort our opinion about God, to discredit Him so that we don’t trust Him. What better way than to play on our feelings so that we shrink from Him rather than running to Him as our heavenly Father!
And that’s really the crux of the matter – whether or not we know God as our Father. As a true Father, God is intimately interested and involved in our lives, down to the smallest detail. He loves nothing better than to be ‘Abba’, Daddy who delights in His children and wants to be wanted in the nitty-gritty of our everyday lives.
Does He really care when we are bullied by religious people who want to push us around to suit their own ends? Sure He does. He watches, He knows and He will repay at the right time. We can leave it to Him because He is not only Abba but also a righteous judge.