Sadly, this is one of the most common realities that I as a life recovery counselor experience, the deep sense of unworthiness for the good things that God desires us to have because one has believed what has been said by someone who failed to see the value of a person. God says differently.
From Ron Hutchcraft devotional #7669: Undervalued Treasures June, 2, 2016
Our son, over the years, was a dedicated baseball card collector. I mean dedicated. He was even dealing for baseball cards on his honeymoon! Hello. But it was worth it. He met a man who was selling his entire collection. So our son bought it for about $300 and when he started going through those cards, he started to get really excited – not that those cards were any match for his beautiful bride, of course. But he began to find single cards that were worth more than the price he had paid for the entire collection! Later, when he needed some money for equipment for a Christian band, he sold a lot of those cards – for 10 times the amount that man had sold it to him for! That man had no idea how much what he had was worth! So he let it go like it wasn’t worth, really, much at all!
I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Undervalued Treasure.”
Tragically, a lot of people are like that. They don’t realize how much they’re worth – including even the beautiful people, people who seem to have it all together. During Princess Diana’s funeral service years ago, her brother, Earl Spencer, gave an unforgettable eulogy – one which I have not forgotten. And it was an honest tribute to his sister. I was touched by a glimpse that he offered into the pain of the most famous woman in the world at that time.
He said, “For all the status, the glamour, the applause, Diana remained throughout a very insecure person at heart, almost childlike in her desire to do good for others so she could release herself from deep feelings of unworthiness, of which her eating disorders were merely a symptom.” Deep feelings of unworthiness, Princess Diana – she wasn’t alone. Those might be feelings you know all too well. And no amount of achievement or relationship has really removed that gnawing sense that you’re not worth very much.
That man who sold his baseball card collection didn’t realize how valuable they were – and he sold them way too cheap. Maybe that’s a mistake you’ve made. Because you don’t realize how much you’re really worth, you’ve gone for too cheap – to get a little approval, a little love, a little significance. But today some of those choices may actually be making you feel even more worthless.
Why do we feel so worthless sometimes? It comes from things you’ve been called …the things you’ve done that you’re ashamed of…the things that have been done to you…the hugs you’ve never had. We have accepted the price tag put on us by people who don’t know our value.
It’s time we got the truth about how much you’re worth – from the only One who knows – the Person who created you! How much was He willing to spend on you? Our word for today from the Word of God, Revelation 5:9 – says this about Jesus – “With your blood, You purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation” That’s it – that’s what God thinks you’re worth – the life of His one and only Son.
The Bible says you are “God’s workmanship” (Ephesians 2:10). No one on earth gave you your worth and no one on earth can take it away. But the reason we don’t know what we’re worth is because we have left the One who gives us our worth. Our sin has taken us away from God. But God loves you so much that He sent His Son to pay with His life for your sin. In the words of the bible, “He loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). The day you open your heart to Jesus Christ to be your Savior from your sin is the day you finally realize how priceless you are.
You come with all those “deep feelings of unworthiness” to the cross where Jesus thought you were worth dying for. And you give yourself to Him.
If you’ve never done that – and you want to, you want to belong to the One who loves you most – tell Him that right now? “Jesus, I’m yours.” And let me invite you to go to our website where, in just a very short time, you can walk through the steps that will help you be sure you have begun your personal relationship with the One who loves you most.
My daughter has a plaque that sums up so well how Jesus feels about you. It says these words, “I asked Jesus, ‘How much do You love me?’ ‘This much,’ He said…and He stretched out His arms and He died.”