VALUE

When you don’t value something, you won’t do anything productive with it. You won’t do anything with your life and future if you don’t value it. But the truth remains that you are valuable to God. You are His poem—the expression of His glory. He has gifted you uniquely, wired you and designed you to present you as a beautiful creation to be appreciated by the world.

Don’t let anyone rob you of your value to God. Don’t let anyone depreciate you and diminish the importance of your life to human society. The self-worth that you discover in Him is the firm foundation upon which you build your life. Your greatest value in life is your value to God!

You can know for a fact that people will never value you the way God does. Why? This is because the value that people place on you tends to be emotionally driven. If they are happy with you, you are wonderful and you are of great value to them. However, if they are upset with you, your value will change; it will drop. So it is important not to make the mistake of trying to draw our self-esteem and sense of value from other people. The end result would only be hurt and disappointment. It is important and wonderful for us to encourage and to give value to one another. But the reality is that the only One that can give you a consistent sense of worth and value is God.

Hence, my self-esteem is always intact and can no longer be shaken by people’s opinion about me. It does not mean I do not take people’s opinion into consideration. I do because that is important. However, their opinion does not shake the foundation of my sense of worth, because my greatest value is my value to my heavenly Father. And here’s the beautiful thing: Even when I mess up in my life, make mistakes and fall short of God's glory, God still values me the same!

I want to let you know that God loves you and your greatest value in life is your value to Him. He knows what He can do with your life and He has great plans for you. But they mean nothing if you don’t believe in them and don’t place the same value on your life that God places.

“Father, I declare my value in Your eyes. Thank You. I am special to You. I am Your poetry that You are writing. A story that You will tell. Thank You for Your love and care. No matter what happens, I will walk in my value to my Heavenly Father. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen!”


p.s. I am not the author of this beautiful article. I don't remember where I found it, i copied & pasted it in a Microsoft Word where I kept it in my laptop long long time ago. And now when I read it again, the Holy Spirit has moved me into sharing it on my blog! Hope it would bring some encouragement to someone, somewhere ...

The amazing LOVE that brings forth ...

Some of us may be wondering WHAT Christians are celebrating on Good Friday & Easter day.
Let me tell you the 5Ws (Who, What, How, Why, When) of Good Fri & Easter:

1st of all, God created You & Me.
- We are created to have close relationship with God initially, but, because of our SIN, our close relationship with God was broken.
- What is SIN? It is any act of disobeying God, anything that displeases God. (Jealousy, unforgiveness, hatred, etc). These sins separate us from God.

When we do something wrong, we must face judgment, right?

God is fair & just.
Because of our sin, we face the JUDGMENT of God – Eternal Death! However;

GOD LOVES US (Me & U, every ONE of us individually)
- God sent us a SAVIOR, someone who’ll save us from eternal death.
- Who's the savior? Jesus Christ (God in the form of man).
- On Good Fri, Jesus was crucified on the CROSS – He paid for our penalty of sin, we do not have to face the judgment of death.

Can you imagine God’s amazing love?

Let me give you an illustration: Imagine A has a gun in his hand, he wanted to shoot B. If you were the father who loves B very much, do you just do nothing? OR, you would run over & save your son, even if that means you have to sacrifice your own life to die in his place?! I believe if you are father, you cannot bear to see your child die, you would rather die in his place to save his life.
THIS – is how much God (our heavenly Father)’s love is for us.

Back to the story …

Through Jesus’ death, you & me are free from the judgment of death! :)

BUT.. the story does not end here! The climax is just to begin … !!!

On the 3rd day after his death, Jesus rose from dead, called "RESURRECTION". The day of His resurrection is called “Easter day”!
- How do we know He has resurrected?
Well, it is clearly recorded in the Bible that 3 days later, Jesus’ tomb was empty! He appeared to His disciples & to many people, in His nail-pierced hands!!

Jesus has conquered death & has victory over death!! Amen!

BUT, why do we celebrate Easter? The victory is Jesus’ business – What’s that to do with me & you???
- Well, that’s because, Jesus has promised us that if we believe in Him,
NOT ONLY we are free from judgment of eternal death resulting from our sins,
BUT ALSO we’ll have eternal life to live with Him in Heaven, forever & ever ...

To conclude:
- Good Fri: It is a celebration of Jesus’ love for us that He is willing to die on the cross to pay our penalty of sins.
- Easter Day: It is a celebration of Jesus’ victory over death & because we believe in Him we’ll have eternal life.

If you say, "I want to receive Jesus’ free gift of love, that is, to be free from the judgment of sin & to receive eternal life! Now what should I do next?"

Pray the following prayer sincerely from your heart:

"Dear Lord Jesus, I admit I am a sinner.
I know I deserve eternal judgment, but I thank You for Your mercy & grace.
Thank You for dying on cross to pay for my sins because of your amazing love for me.
Right now, I receive You as my Lord & Savior.
I know that when I die one day, I'll spend eternity with You in Heaven, forever & ever. In Jesus Christ's name, Amen."