Paul Aremo-Oluwa
Dear Believer,
No kidding everyone loves being valued. There is a special thing about someone or something saying or doing what makes you feel special. That is probably half the reason we tell half the world about our birthday on Facebook when we have Facebook reminder already doing that. Relax! I do that too. I want people to tell me am a great and funny guy. I want them to tell me I can break walls with the power of my mind. Who doesn’t like hearing sweet good stuffs about themselves?
You see... you and I need that to be under control. If you keep waiting for people to validate you, you will never attain anything worth hanging on to. You will become something different from who you already are -who you are made to be. Your joy will depend on people and your mood would too.
If you derive value from the stuffs you own you will never stop acquiring. Things you don’t need will find their way home with you. You will feel empty and unfulfilled living in luxury.
I was privileged to speak briefly to a class of children on a Sunday. I asked, who knows why God loves us? No one in the class knew the answer, not even me! John 3 vs 16 didn’t tell us WHY God loves us but WHAT He gave us on the altar of His great love.
Sisters and brothers go into relationships to have someone value them. In the end they find out they staged themselves for disappointments and regrets from the get go. Personal value or worth is a strong urge within us which we seek from things and people outside us. It is not because we seek fame or recognition, though a lot of people do. The true picture is that our perceived self-worth validates our existence and the purposefulness of living.
Not everyone goes into a relationships with an outright sex drive. By experience, many especially females, just want a call from someone that will make them feel so special. They wish to be reminded that the thought of them is getting someone excited. When they see those words of your chat they know they exist and that they are not alone in this world. They derive worth from these gestures and the absence of it may lead them into psychological breakdown. I can boldly say 4 in every 5 sisters and 2 in 5 brothers I have met suffers from this kind of psychological issue.
You are worth more than words. Your value cannot be quantified. Feelings cannot express it. Your parents do not know a quarter of your worth although they could be the most caring people on earth. Your husband may cherish you but he cannot value you like you truly deserve. Your wife may love you with her entirety but she cannot quantify your worth. Neither you nor I can fully comprehend our worth. The whole idea of SELF-WORTH is a scam.
The value of anything is not self-determined by that thing. It is predetermined by its creator/designer. The cost of an IPhone is predetermined by Apple Inc.
You need to forgive everyone who have taken you for granted and underestimated you... let it go. We are all victims of the ignorance of our own worth and the true value of others. This is why we don't treat people right 100% all the time. It is the reason why we are negligent on issues people are faced with. Why we don't stay in touch with loved ones and become careless how we speak.
Parents forgive your children. Children forgive your parents. Husbands forgive your wife and wives let the bitterness go. Forgive your neighbour. Much more forgive YOURSELF.
Just how much are you worth?
Everything created by God was through the power of His imagination alone except you. You are far too precious to him to just blink out of the blue. You couldn't just pop out of the dust like everything else did.
Everything created by God was through the power of His imagination alone except you. You are far too precious to him to just blink out of the blue. You couldn't just pop out of the dust like everything else did.
The first thing God ever hand crafted is man. Ephesians 2:6 describes us as, “the art of His skilful hands.” Trees came out of the ground just by the word of God. The sun just appeared in the sky immediately God commanded it. When it came to US, His hands was buried in dust. God sculpted you to mirror Him. You are a reflection of God. You are a replica of God. By sharing in His divine (DNA) nature we became part of Him. Who we truly are is currently veiled underneath the flesh (body). (That is a brief talk of being created in the image and likeness of God in a rudimentary way). If someone should ask, what is your worth? You should ask them in return, what is the worth of God? Can you value God?
For instance, if I bought a collection of perfume with 7 types of fragrance for 130,000 naira. How do I know the cost of each fragrance? I will divide the total cost of the collection (130,000 naira) by each piece of fragrance (7) in the collection box. The fragrance in the collection is worth roughly 18,571 naira each. If the total cost of the perfume collection is unknown the value of its components is unknown.
Since God created man to be like Him, your worth is in reference to His worth. If we can rightly value God we can know what man is worth. The problem is we don’t! We don't have even the least idea how big God is or how precious He is. He remains under-described by all human experience put together. He remains indescribable and hence your value is too great it remains unknown. Yet it is known in a sense. Your worth is Christ in the person of God. This is very important. Don't miss it.
You buy goods/commodity by giving something else that either equates or surpasses the value of the commodity in exchange. The reason why the death and blood of bulls couldn't buy us out of the slavery of sin and the devil is because our value was more. It took God to come as Christ (to have blood) to buy us out of the slavery of sin. Nothing and no one was valuable enough, no currency was high enough to conduct that exchange. The value of man can only be equated to God's, that is why God became price for divine exchange of man. The core of redemption is that God bought us with himself.
Jesus said if a man should trade his soul (just one soul) to own the world he has nothing in comparison. Sometimes we act as if we know what that means. The world was not just about the earth, it talks about access to hundreds and thousands of planets still being discovered. The moons and stars in and beyond the milky way galaxy. The entire universe which we don't know how wide, deep or high it is except how far our telescope can see. If one man should trade his soul for all of these such a man would have sold his soul too cheap it would seem he was duped!
Just one soul is worth more than everything in creation. If the soul alone has such great incomprehensible worth, what is the worth of your spirit, soul and body put together? I believe the answer is the true definition of PRICELESS! You are PRICELESS!
In Genesis chapter nine God said He would judge anyone even animal that shed human blood. Just think about that! The value of your blood in the sight of God. Just who the heaven sake are we?
David talked about all the wonder of creation in the eight Psalm but none of them was more riveting like how God treats man. It was such a compelling thought David screamed out, just what is man that you show so much concern towards him. You even gave everything created into his hands.”
I want you to know you are worth more than the Facebook likes, comment or shares you have gotten and will ever get. You are worth more than how people describe you or their thoughts of you or how they feel about you. You are loved by the One who truly knows the value of everything. What He rubbishes is rubbish and what He values has value. You don't need your husband to value you right. You don't need your wife, your friends or parents to tell you your worth. Never live life hoping people will understand how priceless you are. They can't! You don't even know your own worth.
The problem of self-worth for the believer is not about other people undervaluing them but you undervalue and underestimate yourself by valuing yourself. Your worth is not self-determined. Apostle Paul is a wise man, he said, “I don't even try evaluating myself with my own eyes. He that evalutes me is the Lord.”
We only have Christ-Worth. It is never by how much we have, how far we can achieve, how best we behave but of how endowed we were created. For as He is so we are. Never forget in Him you have your being. Nobody not even you can fully understand what you mean to God. I have neither low or high esteem. What I have is Christ-Esteem. For as I look at Christ I see myself just as I am -in the image and likeness of God. Never forget too to treat people how God treats them. It is not a suggestion, it is a commandment.
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