Are You Valuable?

This was taken from Nancy Leigh Demoss and Dannah Gresh's book entitled Lies Young Women Believe: And the Truth That Sets Them Free.
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Lie: I have to preform to be loved and accepted.

A whopping 95% of girls admit that they are always or sometimes plagued by thie lie.

Are you sure that is how everone sees you? It might feel like everyone, including God and your parents, is judging you based on your perfmormance. But is that really true? Let's begin to expose this lie by first looking at God's view of you.

Your value is not determined by what you do, but by how God views you. God chose you before the world was created. "He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be homely and blameless in his sight."(Ephesians 1:4) He knit you together in your mother's womb and declared that you have been "wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14). He loved you before you could love Him. "This is how God showed his love amoung us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him." (1 John 4:9) And, if you belong to Him, nothing can seperate you from His love. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present or the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to seperate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39) Your value isnt determined by what you do. It is determined by the simple fact that you are.

The notion that you can do something to have value or to earn God's love is heretical. At the root of this lie is a mind-set that is based on works rather than grace. "And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace." (Romans 11:6) Responding to God's love, which He expressed profoundly in the death of His precious Son, is all that is required for you to experience His favor. Rather than trying to do something for Him (works-based), you need to recieve what He has done for you (grace-based)! You can not get this free gift through works, because then you could boast that you earned it. "For 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."
(Ephesians 2:8-9) Christ died so that you can experience God's love and acceptance as a gift of grace.

Your good works are to glorify God, not yourself. Whether you are a swimmer, a ball player, a straight-A students, or the leader of your youth group, every effort you put forth should be for God's glory, not your own. "So whether you eat or drink, do all for the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31) If you are feeling pressure for things that you do to make you valuable, you are doing them for the wrong reasons. God does want you to do good things, but only as an offering back to Him for His great gift to us. (See James 2:12-18)

Getting straigh-A's or being a champion ball player isn't bad in and of itself. But it can become a measure of your worth or value. When I hit a "home-run," I feel affirmed and secure; when I do "so-so," I easily become discouraged and vulnerable to self-doubt. I have to consiously counter those feelings with the Truth that I am fully accepted in Christ and that my worth to Him (and others) has nothing to do with my preformances. Otherwise, I tend to drive myself endlessly and to always be looking for "positive feedback" on "how I am doing."

This kind of thinking is prideful, performance-based Christianity. Actually, it is diametrically opposed to true Christianity, which from start to finish is based on humble faith in Christ's performances and the underserved, unmeritited grace of God!
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Here are some questions for you to think about:

- In what areas do you feel pressure to prefrom in order to win the favor of God or others?

- Take the answers from the first question to fill in the blanks:

• Why do you _________?
• Who do you give glory to when you ________?
• What if you fail at _______, are you still worth God's love?
• If you could no longer _______ how would you feel?

- Why is it difficult to accept that God's love for you is not based on what you can accplish or on your ability to do good?

I hope that you found this helpful, I did.

-C