What are we worth? Understanding the very delicate nature of our self-esteem and self worth is paramount in our lives if we want to live in good spiritual health. It is an issue that everyone will have to wrestle with at some time in his or her life. No one is exempt from this battle. People have a need to be recognized and recognize others. We all have very special and significant distinctions in our life that makes us individuals. We want and need to be recognized for those features and distinctions. When we are not recognized we feel like our worth as a human being is compromised. This is known as our ego. This is why there is conflict in our lives. We feel like our ego is being challenged, our ideas, our distinctions. If we are corrected for something we have done wrong or an idea that is incorrect we feel like our entire identity is compromised unless we are teachable.
We see this conflict manifesting in life everywhere and every time we enter into strife or conflict with friends, family, colleagues. Some one has to be right and some one has to be wrong. Both can’t right. That would contradict logic. Two wrongs can’t both be right and two rights are always wrong.
We are all wounded souls looking for a healing. The problem is, we always seem to cause our own wounds. We can keep our wounds to a minimal if we only fight the battles that are worthy of our attention. Fighting the battles that only defend our self worth are not worthy of our attention or energy. We can’t win that kind of a battle.
Even if we get all the attention and recognition we crave, we still can’t be totally fulfilled. We don’t have the ability to filter or process that kind of inordinate praise. This kind of praise is only fitting for God. Only He is able and worthy to receive praise. He is distinct above all; yet, He is not recognized by His very own creation.
Men strive after notoriety and fame way beyond that which is healthy to try to fulfill their ego/self worth. Once they get it, they can’t even fully receive or process it. When they lose it later on in life they feel like their entire life has lost value and worth. Men turn to alcohol, drugs and suicide as their answer. When we give up our right to be recognized by men and look to be recognized by God, then we will find real worth that can be taken through life and beyond.
We see in our world today that those who are unable to attain that degree of recognition look to associate with those who do. This is why we have so many celebrities and groupies. We like to bask in the shadow of greatness. It makes us feel like we have attained a little of it ourselves by mere association. Anyone involved in the business world would deem it an honor if Donald Trump specifically said to them, "I want to hire you to work for me". But again this is still fleeting because it can’t last. Even the most famous people die like the rest of us.
This brings me to this conclusion - as I said above, men want to be recognized and recognize. This gives them worth. So why not find our worth by being recognized by the most famous one of all: Yeshua. If God knows who you are then you truly have worth. You are worth the death of the Son of God. God even wants to hire you to work for Him.
When we look at the only one who deserves praise and how the world treated Him as worthless, then it helps us put life into perspective. Yeshua sought after the praise of the Father and showed us by example not to put the temporary things of this world in our sight as the ultimate goal.
Matt 6:19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Why do we always pursue that which we cannot and should not have? I wonder if it has something to do with an experience we had in a garden.
Isaiah 40
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
And marked off the heavens by the span,
And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,
And weighed the mountains in a balance
And the hills in a pair of scales?
13 Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD,
Or as His counselor has informed Him?
14 With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding?
And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge
And informed Him of the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales;
Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
16 Even Lebanon is not enough to burn,
Nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as nothing before Him,
They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.
18 To whom then will you liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare with Him?
Now this is fame.
We see this conflict manifesting in life everywhere and every time we enter into strife or conflict with friends, family, colleagues. Some one has to be right and some one has to be wrong. Both can’t right. That would contradict logic. Two wrongs can’t both be right and two rights are always wrong.
We are all wounded souls looking for a healing. The problem is, we always seem to cause our own wounds. We can keep our wounds to a minimal if we only fight the battles that are worthy of our attention. Fighting the battles that only defend our self worth are not worthy of our attention or energy. We can’t win that kind of a battle.
Even if we get all the attention and recognition we crave, we still can’t be totally fulfilled. We don’t have the ability to filter or process that kind of inordinate praise. This kind of praise is only fitting for God. Only He is able and worthy to receive praise. He is distinct above all; yet, He is not recognized by His very own creation.
Men strive after notoriety and fame way beyond that which is healthy to try to fulfill their ego/self worth. Once they get it, they can’t even fully receive or process it. When they lose it later on in life they feel like their entire life has lost value and worth. Men turn to alcohol, drugs and suicide as their answer. When we give up our right to be recognized by men and look to be recognized by God, then we will find real worth that can be taken through life and beyond.
We see in our world today that those who are unable to attain that degree of recognition look to associate with those who do. This is why we have so many celebrities and groupies. We like to bask in the shadow of greatness. It makes us feel like we have attained a little of it ourselves by mere association. Anyone involved in the business world would deem it an honor if Donald Trump specifically said to them, "I want to hire you to work for me". But again this is still fleeting because it can’t last. Even the most famous people die like the rest of us.
This brings me to this conclusion - as I said above, men want to be recognized and recognize. This gives them worth. So why not find our worth by being recognized by the most famous one of all: Yeshua. If God knows who you are then you truly have worth. You are worth the death of the Son of God. God even wants to hire you to work for Him.
When we look at the only one who deserves praise and how the world treated Him as worthless, then it helps us put life into perspective. Yeshua sought after the praise of the Father and showed us by example not to put the temporary things of this world in our sight as the ultimate goal.
Matt 6:19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Why do we always pursue that which we cannot and should not have? I wonder if it has something to do with an experience we had in a garden.
Isaiah 40
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
And marked off the heavens by the span,
And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,
And weighed the mountains in a balance
And the hills in a pair of scales?
13 Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD,
Or as His counselor has informed Him?
14 With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding?
And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge
And informed Him of the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales;
Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
16 Even Lebanon is not enough to burn,
Nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as nothing before Him,
They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.
18 To whom then will you liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare with Him?
Now this is fame.
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