This week I have a simple, but important message to share with you. It’s a truth we all need to soak up like a sponge and let it saturate our lives to the point that it overflows to others. No matter who you are, what you have done, what has been done to you, or your current circumstances you are valued, you are accepted, and you are loved. I know this to be true, because God created you and he values you, he accepts you, and he loves you.
You Are Valued
Not only has God created you, but he values you. He knows you inside and out—your personality and thoughts, your actions and beliefs, your failures and victories, and your desires and needs. You are important and priceless to him (John 3:16). You are like a lost coin for which he searches the entire house and rejoices when he finds it (Luke 15:8-10). You are like a lost sheep for which he overcomes any obstacle to rescue (Luke 15:1-7). You are like a hidden treasure that has been found in a field and he sells everything to buy the field because you are there (Matthew 13:44). You are like the finest of pearls and he is like a merchant who sells everything to purchase you (Matthew 13:45-46). You are special, for out of all of the universe only people are made in God’s image. He is aware of every detail of your life all the way down to the number of hairs on your head (Luke 12:7). He knows when you rise and when you lie down, when you come and when you go (Psalm 139:1-6). He seeks to strengthen you and save you. He always has your best interest in mind (2 Chronicles 16:9; Isaiah 40:28-31).
You Are Accepted
Although you might not feel worthy, God accepts you. The Bible is full of countless examples of God seeking out broken people where they are at, but then taking them to where they need to be. He accepts you the way you are, but he loves you too much to leave you that way. He is always calling you closer to himself by faith in Jesus. He knows that the best life is for you to be with him, to be like him, and to do what he does. What keeps you from that is your prideful self-centeredness in wanting to live life your way instead of God’s way. This separates you from God and kills you spiritually. You have most likely felt the guilt of living for yourself or disobeying God. Respond to that conviction by confessing any wrongdoing to God and receiving his forgiveness. He promises to hear you, accept you. forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:5-10). Jesus taught in a parable that, you are like a disrespectful, rebellious runaway and if you come to your senses, God who has eagerly waited for you, embraces you, forgives you and rejoices over your return to the family (Luke 15:11-32). When the devil looks at you he sees a worthless soul to ruthlessly steal from, destroy, and kill through lies and condemnation. In contrast, when God looks at you he sees the beautiful person you are to become with him. Not only does he accept you, but he makes a new and better way for you by faith and cheers you on in it, even when you stumble.
You Are Loved
God loves you more than you realize. However it’s not because you deserve it, for we have all rejected God’s love at some point by sinning against him (Romans 3:23; Isaiah 53:6). Fortunately, God’s love is not based on you earning it. His love is unconditional because he is love (1 John 4:8). That’s his nature. God can’t help. but to always love because that is who he is. It is his attribute, not just his action. He is love, not just loving. God expresses his love toward you by not only creating you, but also by providing a way to save you from your wrongdoing so you can experience unsurpassed life with him now and forever. Jesus, God the Son, makes that possible. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).
Those Who Believe Inherit Blessing
Although God values you, accepts you, and loves you because he created you, he wants you to experience the fullness of that value, acceptance, and love by becoming his child. Only by trusting Jesus to save you can you move past just being God’s creation and into being God’s child. It is like passing from darkness to light. The apostle John described Jesus coming into the world like this. “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:4-5, 9-14). If you become a child of God by believing in Jesus you receive the greatest inheritance—true life with God now and forever. The Bible describes that as glorious, blessed, wonderful beyond imagination, complete, holy, righteous, full of wisdom and truth, imperishable, unspoiled, unfading, and reserved for God’s children.
Overcome Despair
I understand that at times you may not feel valued, accepted, and loved. Maybe you feel that way right now. Maybe this fallen world and broken people have knocked you down or your own foolish choices have tripped you up to the point that God seems distant, uncaring, or unrelatable. Don’t wallow in that lie. I encourage you to step out in faith and your feelings will follow. Doing so shifts your focus from yourself to God and others. Humbly ask God to meet you where you are at, but to take you to where he wants you to be one day at a time. Confess any sin and receive God’s forgiveness. Do the next right thing that God has already put on your heart, but most likely you have ignored or excused yourself from. Taste and see that God is good (Ps 34:8). Prayerfully start practicing one or more of the following disciplines individually and with other believers. Here are six that will foster a love for God and others: Sing God’s praises, study God’s word, share God’s truth, serve all people, stand in the gap to intercede for people, and stay dependent on God. As you do God will reveal himself to you. He will impart his joy and peace. He will give you the grace and power to deal with your present circumstances, and the hope to see the benefit that will come from challenges. He promises to work all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). Those who receive his value, acceptance, and love and walk by faith and not by sight or feeling inherit the blessing of becoming more and more like Jesus.
Conclusion
God pricelessly values you, unconditionally accepts you, and deeply loves you. He gave his own son, Jesus, to pay the death penalty for your wrongdoing so anyone who trusts in him can live rightly with God as his child now and forever. By faith inherit all God designed for you to be and to have. As you grow in your inheritance in Jesus, share it with others. As God the Father sent Jesus on a mission of love and salvation, he is sending you (John 20:21). By his grace and power love others as he has loved you (John 13:34-35; Ephesians 5:2; 1 John 4:7-8). Value them because God made them. Accept them even though they may reject you. Love them even when they may seem unlovable. As you do, hopefully they will become children of God and enjoy the riches of his inheritance also.