Hey I wanna share something that God did in my life that really changed me. As a matter of fact it's probably the single biggest thing God has ever done that changed me the most - and trust me when I say He's done a LOT in my life. He saved me and gave me a home in heaven when I was 8 years old, He's healed many of my diseases including Chron's disease and depression, He's healed loads of broken bones and kept me alive countless times on various motorbikes and other crazy vehicles, He's provided so many times and often when it came right down to the wire - but that's not what He wants me to talk about. Today God's asked me to share something very powerful that changed my relationship with Him forever. I hope, pray and believe that this will help others out there that were like me that wrestle with this too. What God has told me to say is simply this "You are worthy". This is quite a controversial topic with Christians and I've found it quite common to be a theme in a lot of songs and prayers to God saying "we are not worthy..." and I have to say I completely disagree.
Before you dismiss me as a madman, stay with me and I'll explain why and the reasons may surprise you. Firstly, I came from a broken home. My Dad left when I was only four and my childhood is scattered with memories of financial stress, insecurity and constant hate fueled war between my parents. Even sadder was that their backgrounds weren't any better - they were much, much worse. Both sides held horrible secrets of abuse, neglect, depression and death. So my parents could hardly be held to blame - they suffered just like me and I was born into that very same cycle of hurt. As a result of the immense pain, rejection, shame and fear that came from that type of upbringing I developed an incredibly low sense of self worth. I was unable to give love or receive love. In my mind I somehow reasoned that if so much pain and suffering had happened to me - then logically I must be flawed and my worth must be very low. You see, I figured that if people hurt me, manipulated me, abused me and neglected me it has to be because they know my worthlessness and are responding to it. What I'm here to tell you today is this. I was wrong. I couldn't have been more wrong.
What I'm here also today to tell you is this... my life was set up like that for a reason. The reason was simple. My enemies job was to make sure I never woke up and knew the truth - because if I did they were in deep trouble and I might tell others. To explain this better God gave me an example but first I want to share a verse with you. It's one of the most common verses ever quoted. John 3:16. It says this "For God so loved the world that He gave..." Now think about those words. It says because of God's love it prompted an action from Him to give His son to save us. If you open your heart you'll see that its saying "I value this world and all it's people enough to save them. I see them as worthy to receive My love..." Think about it... If it's true that we aren't worthy then God wouldn't have bothered to expend His love to us. He certainly wouldn't have sent His only Son to die for us that's for sure. So that means He knows something we don't. He knew we were worth it. Worth dying for. The example God gave me is this. Picture on the ground a diamond - a BIG diamond that's a good inch by inch in size shining in the sun.
Now if you were walking along and saw this diamond sitting on the ground you would surely pick it up because you know it's worth. You wouldn't even have to be a jeweler to know that this thing sitting there is worth a stack of cash. Now imagine that for many years no one did spot the diamond and it got dirty, it got covered in mud and kicked about the place. It no longer gleamed in the sun like it was meant to... but the truth is it's still a diamond and it's still worth loads and loads if only it could be restored. What I want to say is this... we are those diamonds. Some of us have been to Jesus and have been restored, some are still yet to find Him and His grace. Here's the important bit though...the diamond cannot define it's own worth. It's simply impossible, it must be valued by a reliable external source. A diamond is simply a stone - albeit a precious stone - but no matter how hard it tries it can't call out and tell others it's worth. A diamond also cannot define the worth of other diamonds irregardless of whether they have been restored or are uncut with rough edged.
A diamond can truly only be valued by a master jeweler, someone who knows these precious stones extremely well inside and out. Someone who has the eyes to be able to refine, restore and polish an uncut stone into a precious and rare jewel to be displayed before all. What I want to say is this... it's impossible for you to define your worth. You simply don't have the eyes for it. It's impossible for us to make an accurate statement as to whether we are worthy or not based on our extremely limited life experience, knowledge or treatment from others. You absolutely must have a reliable external source and there is only one place that can give you an accurate, constant and unbiased scale of your worth. It's called the Word of God. In a nutshell it's what God says about you. So lets see what He says hey. Psalm 139:14 says "I am fearfully and wonderfully made". That's pretty clear to me and sounds like a lot of worth just got dumped on you! Romans 8:17 says "because we have believed in Jesus we are co-heirs with Christ". That makes us full royalty by adoption! John 1:12 says "If we believe in Jesus we become the children of God". That makes us family!
There's so many more I could quote but lastly Jeremiah 29:11 says "I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and for good says God". If you look at the word "worthy" its easy to see it comes from the root word "worth" - so that means for something to be worthy means it has been deemed to have worth. Now I want to make this plain and simple because that's what God did for me. He met me and told me this "Mark, you've been wrong about a lot of things. I need to show you the truth". And He did. All my life I spoke words over myself having no idea how powerful self cursing can be saying horrible things like "you're a failure, you're a loser, you're ugly, you're worthless, you'll never be anything..." The voices echoed inside me every minute of every day and I was forced to speak them out. Well... I was wrong. Those words were lies. Jesus opened my eyes and now I know better than to get my worth from what I think, say or do. My worth comes from Him alone. It's because of what Jesus did for us that makes us worthy. And because of what He says I am worthy. Because I call on Him I am worthy of His help.
Because I seek Him I an worthy of His favour. Because I follow Him I and worthy to be called one of His own. Because I believe in Him I am worthy of His love. And it was His radical, unmatched, powerful and earth changing love that saved me just like in Psalm 18. Please be careful of the words you speak about yourself because they hold immense latent spiritual power - far more than we can ever understand while we live down here on Earth. The Bible says that death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21) - so speak wisely and be nice to yourself. The only thing that should come out of your mouth should be for building up (Ephesians 4:29) - and that includes words spoken about yourself. If you are like I was and you feel that your worth has been damaged by those around you that have treated you badly can I encourage you to seek the Master. Seek Him with every single part of who you are. I can't tell you how He will do it but I can promise you this... if you seek Him you will find Him and you will know the truth. And once you know the truth, you will be set free from the lies about your worth.
God loves you so, so much more than you'll ever know and I pray today that somehow these words find a way to break inside those high walls, deep into your heart and begin to unlock and awaken the truth of your immense and immeasurable worth in your Fathers eyes. The simple truth is this... You're worth loving, worth helping and worth saving. You are Worthy.
Before you dismiss me as a madman, stay with me and I'll explain why and the reasons may surprise you. Firstly, I came from a broken home. My Dad left when I was only four and my childhood is scattered with memories of financial stress, insecurity and constant hate fueled war between my parents. Even sadder was that their backgrounds weren't any better - they were much, much worse. Both sides held horrible secrets of abuse, neglect, depression and death. So my parents could hardly be held to blame - they suffered just like me and I was born into that very same cycle of hurt. As a result of the immense pain, rejection, shame and fear that came from that type of upbringing I developed an incredibly low sense of self worth. I was unable to give love or receive love. In my mind I somehow reasoned that if so much pain and suffering had happened to me - then logically I must be flawed and my worth must be very low. You see, I figured that if people hurt me, manipulated me, abused me and neglected me it has to be because they know my worthlessness and are responding to it. What I'm here to tell you today is this. I was wrong. I couldn't have been more wrong.
What I'm here also today to tell you is this... my life was set up like that for a reason. The reason was simple. My enemies job was to make sure I never woke up and knew the truth - because if I did they were in deep trouble and I might tell others. To explain this better God gave me an example but first I want to share a verse with you. It's one of the most common verses ever quoted. John 3:16. It says this "For God so loved the world that He gave..." Now think about those words. It says because of God's love it prompted an action from Him to give His son to save us. If you open your heart you'll see that its saying "I value this world and all it's people enough to save them. I see them as worthy to receive My love..." Think about it... If it's true that we aren't worthy then God wouldn't have bothered to expend His love to us. He certainly wouldn't have sent His only Son to die for us that's for sure. So that means He knows something we don't. He knew we were worth it. Worth dying for. The example God gave me is this. Picture on the ground a diamond - a BIG diamond that's a good inch by inch in size shining in the sun.
Now if you were walking along and saw this diamond sitting on the ground you would surely pick it up because you know it's worth. You wouldn't even have to be a jeweler to know that this thing sitting there is worth a stack of cash. Now imagine that for many years no one did spot the diamond and it got dirty, it got covered in mud and kicked about the place. It no longer gleamed in the sun like it was meant to... but the truth is it's still a diamond and it's still worth loads and loads if only it could be restored. What I want to say is this... we are those diamonds. Some of us have been to Jesus and have been restored, some are still yet to find Him and His grace. Here's the important bit though...the diamond cannot define it's own worth. It's simply impossible, it must be valued by a reliable external source. A diamond is simply a stone - albeit a precious stone - but no matter how hard it tries it can't call out and tell others it's worth. A diamond also cannot define the worth of other diamonds irregardless of whether they have been restored or are uncut with rough edged.
A diamond can truly only be valued by a master jeweler, someone who knows these precious stones extremely well inside and out. Someone who has the eyes to be able to refine, restore and polish an uncut stone into a precious and rare jewel to be displayed before all. What I want to say is this... it's impossible for you to define your worth. You simply don't have the eyes for it. It's impossible for us to make an accurate statement as to whether we are worthy or not based on our extremely limited life experience, knowledge or treatment from others. You absolutely must have a reliable external source and there is only one place that can give you an accurate, constant and unbiased scale of your worth. It's called the Word of God. In a nutshell it's what God says about you. So lets see what He says hey. Psalm 139:14 says "I am fearfully and wonderfully made". That's pretty clear to me and sounds like a lot of worth just got dumped on you! Romans 8:17 says "because we have believed in Jesus we are co-heirs with Christ". That makes us full royalty by adoption! John 1:12 says "If we believe in Jesus we become the children of God". That makes us family!
There's so many more I could quote but lastly Jeremiah 29:11 says "I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and for good says God". If you look at the word "worthy" its easy to see it comes from the root word "worth" - so that means for something to be worthy means it has been deemed to have worth. Now I want to make this plain and simple because that's what God did for me. He met me and told me this "Mark, you've been wrong about a lot of things. I need to show you the truth". And He did. All my life I spoke words over myself having no idea how powerful self cursing can be saying horrible things like "you're a failure, you're a loser, you're ugly, you're worthless, you'll never be anything..." The voices echoed inside me every minute of every day and I was forced to speak them out. Well... I was wrong. Those words were lies. Jesus opened my eyes and now I know better than to get my worth from what I think, say or do. My worth comes from Him alone. It's because of what Jesus did for us that makes us worthy. And because of what He says I am worthy. Because I call on Him I am worthy of His help.
Because I seek Him I an worthy of His favour. Because I follow Him I and worthy to be called one of His own. Because I believe in Him I am worthy of His love. And it was His radical, unmatched, powerful and earth changing love that saved me just like in Psalm 18. Please be careful of the words you speak about yourself because they hold immense latent spiritual power - far more than we can ever understand while we live down here on Earth. The Bible says that death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21) - so speak wisely and be nice to yourself. The only thing that should come out of your mouth should be for building up (Ephesians 4:29) - and that includes words spoken about yourself. If you are like I was and you feel that your worth has been damaged by those around you that have treated you badly can I encourage you to seek the Master. Seek Him with every single part of who you are. I can't tell you how He will do it but I can promise you this... if you seek Him you will find Him and you will know the truth. And once you know the truth, you will be set free from the lies about your worth.
God loves you so, so much more than you'll ever know and I pray today that somehow these words find a way to break inside those high walls, deep into your heart and begin to unlock and awaken the truth of your immense and immeasurable worth in your Fathers eyes. The simple truth is this... You're worth loving, worth helping and worth saving. You are Worthy.
