Refuge: 8-21-15 Puzzling and Pondering

Think of Mary and all she had been through. A young girl, she was going down a path no one else had ever travelled. The whispers, the outright mocking, even Joseph did not believe her. But she knew.

When you think about it, Mary was the ONLY ONE who knew for sure that what she said was true, the only one who had first-hand knowledge of what had happened. So, what might the world have told Mary she was?

Slut

Unclean

Liar

Delusional

Disappointment

I imagine each experience of having someone verify what she knew—Elizabeth, Joseph, the shepherds—would be like water on a dry plant. The relief that there was someone she could just relax around, not having to defend herself. She could just soak it in and remember it again and again.

Luke 2:19 says: "All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often." I'll bet she did! Those may have been the things that kept her going when times got tough because I am guessing the whispers did not stop after His birth.

When Jesus was dying on the cross (John 19), maybe she remembered those early affirmations. Maybe those early hard situations made her able to trust in God during this terrible, awful day. And on that day, when He surely had big, huge things on His mind, like saving the world, He looked down on His little mother and took care of her. Maybe she pondered that for a long time, too.

A God so big as to save us all, but so detailed that He will look at one woman and comfort her.

What does the world tell us we are?

Fat

Ugly

Stupid

Unloved

Forgotten

Alone

Hopeless

My mind seems to go back to bad times, bad decisions, times I failed, when it wanders (especially late at night when I'm up all alone). I feel regret that things happened or that I didn’t do this or that. I tend to forget the affirmations I received or the assurance that each event was for a reason, to bring me to this point (and further).

What if I looked back on some of the landmark, life changing things that happened to me throughout my life. My not fitting in with friends, my parents dying when I was in my 20's, getting cancer the first time, taking in a 3-year-old foster boy, saying "good bye" to that same boy four years later, getting cancer the second time. Each of those events was hard, hard, hard to go through. Now I can say they were necessary (well, usually I can say that.) But there were affirmations. Times when others told me God loved me or that He carried me or that they loved me through the pain. Those things formed the person that is me.

In Bible study last night we made a jigsaw puzzle with those hard pieces. Then we added an affirmation from God around the border. I need to remember the affirmation whenever those hard times threaten to take over my feelings and mind. Ponder those words that offered me comfort. FYI, my affirmation was John 15:15: "Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me." So, my assignment is now to ponder those words and my Friend.

Question: "What does the Bible say about self-worth?"

Answer: The Bible actually has many passages that tell us what God has to say about our worth and our value in His eyes. Genesis 1:26-27 says we are made in His image, the very image of God. Psalm 139:13-16 says we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and all the days of our lives were written in God’s book before we were ever born, confirming God’s prior knowledge and plan for our lives. Ephesians 1:4 says God chose His children before the foundations of the earth were ever formed, and in Ephesians 1:13-14 we’re told we are God’s own possession, chosen for the praise of His glory, and that we have an inheritance in heaven with Him as His children.

But notice the wording in each of the above phrases: “are made,” “are fearfully and wonderfully made,” “were written,” “God chose His children,” “we are God’s own possession,” and “we have an inheritance.” These phrases all have one thing in common: they are things done to us or for us by God. These are not things we have done for ourselves, nor have we earned or deserved them. We are, in fact, merely the recipients of “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). Therefore, we can conclude that our worth is not really of the “self” at all; rather, it is worth given to us by God. We are of inestimable value to Him because of the price He paid to make us worthy—the death of His Son on the cross.

The Bible tells us that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). In fact, we “were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). What worth is there in dead things? None. God imputed to us His own righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21) not because we were worthy of it, but because we were unworthy, unlovable, and unable to make ourselves worthy in any way. But—and here’s the miracle—He actually loved us in spite of our condition (John 3:16), and because He did, we now have infinite worth.

John 1:12 tells us that to those who received Christ and believed in His name, God gave the right to become His children. First John 1:9 tells us that if we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we focus on how much God loves us and the price He paid to redeem us, we’ll come to see ourselves as God sees us, and that will help us understand just how much we’re really worth as children of the most high God.

Our self-worth is too often based on what other people tell us about ourselves. The one, true authority on our self-worth is Jesus Christ, and since He gave His own life up for us by dying on a cross, that should tell us just how valuable we really are.

--http://www.gotquestions.org/audio/self-worth.mp3 http://www.gotquestions.net/Printer/self-worth-PF.html

Who has He made you to be?

I am God's child.

Galatians 3:26

I am Jesus' friend.

John 15:15

I am a whole new person with a whole new life.

2 Corinthians 5:17

I am a place where God's Spirit lives.

1 Corinthians 6:19

I am God's Incredible work of art.

Ephesians 2:10