Treasured Possession

Deuteronomy 14:2

Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his treasured possession.

Good morning ladies,

Did you know that if you look up self-esteem in a topical Bible you won’t find any listings? There are listings for self-control, self-denial, self-discipline, self-examination and two pages on self-righteous, but nothing on self-esteem.

I think that is because we were never supposed to get our sense of esteem or worth from ourselves.

I used to weigh myself every day, sometimes two or three times a day. At one point it bordered on obsessive. If the scale said what I wanted it to say, I was happy, but it for whatever reason I had gained a once or two my mood would plummet. My sense of self-esteem was related to the numbers on the scale. Eventually I threw the scale away.

I see the same thing with the kids. Kids who do well in school or excel at sports have a better opinion of themselves than the kids who struggle. Yet they often struggle when they graduate and have to find new ways to measure their worth.

And I think that is why so many people are depressed these days, it is not just that they lost their jobs, it is they lost what they felt made them important.

But we who are in Christ should not get our value from the world. It does not matter how smart we are, or how pretty we are, or how much money we have. Who we are is defined by God.

One of the things that being still is teaching me is that my value and God’s love is not dependent upon me

There is nothing I can do to make God love me more, and there is nothing I can do to make Him love me less. And I have value because I am His child.

My value and His love both come from Him.

And whether you believe it or not, so does yours.

Love,
Jill