Finding Our Worth

This post is written to link with Five Minute Friday– write for five minutes on a one word prompt.  The prompt today is “worth.”

Where do you find your worth?  What determines your value?

These can be tricky questions to answer honestly.  While we might know the truth, it’s all too easy to let our worth be determined by how other people treat us, by our circumstances, by the things we’ve done, or by how we see ourselves.

But the Bible says “we are God’s masterpiece” (Ephesians 2:10 NLT) and I think that image has a lot to teach us about our worth.

Our worth lies in the one who made us.  A painting by Picasso or Rembrandt or Monet will sell for millions of dollars, not necessarily because the painting itself is so much better than many others, but because of the one who created it.  We have worth because we are created by an even greater artist- the God of the universe.

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.   Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!  Your workmanship is marvellous- how well I know it.”  (Psalm 139:13-14 NLT)

Our worth lies in the fact that we are unique.  There is no-one else like you!  We are not just cookie-cutter copies of one another.  Each of us is a unique, special, one-of-a-kind, designer creation.  God has a purpose for you that no-one else can fulfil and that in itself makes you highly valuable.

Our worth lies in what someone is willing to pay.  A work of art only truly has the value set on the price tag if there is someone willing to pay that price.  1 Corinthians 6:20 tells us “God bought you with a high price.” (NLT)  John 3:16 explains what that price was: “God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (NLT)  God paid the highest price of all for us because he considered us worth it- not because we deserve it, but because of his great love.

So let’s hold to that today and find our worth in him.

I know that’s easy to say, and much tougher to put into practice.  It’s a subject I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.  If you haven’t read these posts yet, you might want to check them out to explore this topic further:

Identity: What Defines You?
Why “Worthy” Matters, And A Book Review