God, in His Word, has spoken of His love and value for us, over and over. He says in I John 4:16 that, "We know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love." And then in Ephesians 2:4-5 it says, "Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in sin." God loves us for exactly who we are - He made us and designed us with each special trait we have. Even though we can hear those truths, read them, think on them and believe them in our heads, somehow we need God to help us get them to our hearts.
The first ditch I see in the balance of our personal value is the very common view of ~ I am not good enough. What a lie from the enemy that has been spoken over so many lives both young and old. I have watched the effects on my own life, close friends and even traces in my children that come and go. When we know that this is not God's truth for us, then why do we let these thoughts stay? Simple strategy of the enemy, really. He watches for the ways we mess up or make mistakes or choose to sin (the sin he often tempts us with in the first place), and then he jumps on our thoughts and fills us with a deluge of shame and embarrassment. So if the LIE is "I am not good enough", then what is God's truth? One truth is found in Ephesians 3:12 and it says that, "In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with FREEDOM and CONFIDENCE." It is because of Jesus Christ that we don't have to carry any shame, no matter our past or present. What was done on the cross for us, when we accept it as a gift, sets us free from the need to "be good enough". When the enemy throws that lie in your face, you just throw back Proverbs 3:26 says that, "The Lord will be (my) CONFIDENCE."
The second ditch in personal value and worth, is the one of ~ I am doing pretty well all on my own. Can you believe it? If the enemy can't trick us with one lie, he will try the opposite approach. He will get your eyes off Jesus and all that He is doing in and through us and try to get us to take the credit instead. This ditch has a potentially deeper fall simply because of the danger found in thinking we are anything without the cross and all Jesus has done for us. The lie says "I am doing pretty well all on my own", but God's truth will not let us stay there with those thoughts - it is not a safe place to be. Instead, God brings us back to the centre of the road, when He says in John 1:3, "Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made." We are also reminded in Ephesians 2:8-9 that, "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is NOT FROM YOURSELVES, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." The truth pulls us out of worldly thinking and reminds us that all we have and are is because of Jesus living in and through us.
So ask yourself today? Are you in either of those ditches? If you aren't, don't congratulate yourself, because you will trip right into the second ditch we looked at. Instead, thank Jesus for what He has done for each of us. Ecclesiastes 7:18 tells us that, "The man who fears God will avoid ALL extremes."
Let God set you in the centre and keep your feet on the path!
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