Net Value

And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as “temporary residents.” For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake.  1 Peter 1:17-20

Coming from an accounting background, I understand the concept of ‘Net Worth.’  You take your assets, and subtract your liabilities to come up with your net worth.  For many of us, we tend to look at net worth in a more humanistic way.  We ask ourselves, “How much value do I bring to society?  To those closest to me?  To myself?”  Many of us have no problem seeing how much ‘worth’ they have.  Others struggle.  I would consider myself the latter, but there is a catch.  You see as a follower of Christ, I understand that I have infinite net worth even though I myself at times feel at a deficit.  It is that gap between the infinite value of Christ on your side and your own self-worth where you find that word ‘humility.’  You are humbled when you realize the distance between your own feeling of worth and God’s value He has for you.  I realize just how much God has given me.  I once wanted all these material things; a nice house, a car, and other things.  All those wants, and yet, I was a broken man who consistently fell short of Christ’s glory and still do.  And yet, He loved me enough to bless me with all of these things and a wonderful wife who I describe as God knowing what I needed before I even knew it.  Then when I gave my life to Him, I truly understood all He had done for me.  I do not say these things to either brag or boast for I am in no position to do either.  However, I witness this praying it enlightens you as to the many blessings God has given that perhaps you might take for granted.

We are infinitely worthy because our Heavenly Father values us so.  When we gave our lives to Christ, there were angels rejoicing, and we are reminded He has watched over us each and every day of our lives.  He nurtured by protecting us from harm and teaching us lessons unbeknownst to us.  We grew in our faith, and learned to appreciate how an awesome God would come to love people like us.  I do not have a magical answer as to why He loves us so.  In fact, I still at times wonder why He loves me.  What I do know is that He has come to my rescue and moved me out of Harm’s way so often that if I were not spiritually aware, I would have thought of myself as the luckiest man alive.

God always tips the scale in our favor when we reach out to Him.  Tipping the scale does not necessarily mean we get what we want.  It does mean that He always looks out for our interest and what may seem to be disapproval or indifference to our prayers is actually God setting the stage for that which you truly want and need.  That is why He is a God of abundance.  He gives us unlimited power through Him, and it is that which we can claim with confidence we are incredibly valuable to God.  So let us never forget to be humble both in acknowledging where we are and understanding how worthy He is.  How can you greater align your own value and God’s value?  What can you do to instill God’s value into others?  My prayer is that we acknowledge our shortcoming to embrace the worthiness of ourselves through Christ Jesus, and thus, enjoy our ‘net worth’ to God.  Amen.