Of No Value by Edwina Patterson from Redeeming the Time
During the break at the conference,
I stood and hugged and prayed with women while autographing their books. In the
midst of the crowd and noise, I heard a voice quietly say, "I'm of no
value!" To my ears, it sounded like she had used a microphone.
I quickly turned around and asked,
"Who said that?" Puzzled, the women looked at each other not having
heard what I heard.
Again I asked, "Who said ‘I'm
of no value.'?" Finally I heard a soft voice say, "I did...because I
am of no value."
Promising to return, I excused
myself from the crowd of women and asked Julie (not her real name) to come
aside with me for a moment. The ravages of life—reared in an abusive home, now
in a difficult marriage, no high school education, no present job, and
pregnant—this precious young woman sincerely believed she held no value to
anyone. Her eyes told me how discouraged/depressed she was. She had come to the
Redeeming the Time conference by herself and admitted that she stood at the
door a long time before she had the courage to come in.
I wrapped my arms around her and
held her for several minutes. After a while I began to whisper a prayer for her
and I felt her body begin to relax. When I finished praying, I asked her to get
her things and sit beside me when I wasn't speaking. She hesitated, but finally
agreed to join me.
As I began to speak in the next
session, I found God directing the message to include the value each of us has
in God's eyes. I stressed that the Lord purposefully created each one of us to
be the unique individuals that we are. And in spite of what we may have been
raised to believe, the worth we have in God's eyes is not determined by our
looks, car we drive, home we live in, job that we have, church we attend or how
much we donate to charities. God looks past all those things and looks at our
hearts. He wants to know if we
love Him.
Can you believe it! God wants to know
if we love Him. Why?
Because He's already proved
His love for us! He loves us so much He sent His only Son to be our ransom for
sin...to die on the cross for the sin of the world. And it wasn't an easy
death. Jesus was unrecognizable because of the beatings from the Jewish and the
Roman guards. Blood ran down His forehead from the thorns in the rough crown
the soldiers placed on His head. As they nailed the Son of God to the cross,
they mocked and ridiculed Jesus. And the blood from the spikes in His hands and
feet dropped on the ground.
He could have called on a legion of
angels to free Him. He could have easily climbed down from the cross Himself,
but He hung there because of His love for us.
Love like that is amazing.
It's incomprehensible. It's unthinkable.
It's indescribable. God values us so much that He sent His only Son to die for
us. That's proof enough for me!
But what about today and the people
of today. Are they of value to God? God hasn't changed His love for us! Jesus
loves us so much He is willing to love us even though we don't deserve it, even
when we don't love Him back, even when we ignore Him. Jesus is able to see all
our flaws and imperfections—all our mistakes and regrets—and still chooses to love us...in spite of
ourselves.
How valuable are you to God? If you
were the only person on earth, Jesus loves you so much that He stretched out
His arms on the cross and died just for
you. That should be proof enough for you!
Don't let the world or your
circumstances rob you of the confidence—the deep-down in your heart
knowledge—that God loves you and values an intimate relationship with you. No
matter where you are right now, regardless of what is going on in your life,
you are valuable to Him! Focus on that!
The way you respond to God's love
will be evidenced by the life you live. Maybe the question should be, "How
much do you value God's love?"
Enough to meet with Him each morning in prayer? Enough to be obedient to do
what He whispers in your ear? Enough to share His love with others? Mmmmm, just how much do you value God's love?
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