Pop psychology is wrong when it tells you to look inside yourself and find your value. The magazines are wrong when they suggest you are only as good as you are thin, muscular, pimple-free, or perfumed. The movies mislead you when they imply that your value increases as your stamina, intelligence, or net worth grows. Religious leaders lie when they urge you to grade your significance according to your church attendance, self-discipline, or spirituality.
According to the Bible you are good simply because God made you in his image. Period. He cherishes you because you bear a resemblance to him. And you will only be satisfied when you engage in your role as an image bearer of God. Such was the view of King David: “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness” (Ps. 17:15 NKJV).
Lay hold of this promise, and spare yourself a world of confusion and fear. How much sadness would evaporate if every person simply chose to believe this: I was made for God’s glory and am being made into his image.
As I was about to sit down and review this chapter, my daughter Jenna stepped into my office. She is as round as a ladybug. In six weeks she will, God willing, give birth to a baby girl. Can I tell you something about that infant? I love her. I’ve never seen her, but I love her. She has done nothing to earn my love. But I love her. She’s never brought me coffee or called me Papa. She’s never sung me a song or danced me a dance. She has done nothing!
Yet I love her already.
I would do anything for her, and that is not hyperbole.
Why? Why do I love her so? Because she carries some of me. A small part for sure but a part of me nonetheless.
Why does God love you with an everlasting love? It has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with whose you are. You are his. You carry a part of him. There is something of him in you. He made you in his image. He stamped his name on your heart. He breathed life into your lungs.
Someone called you a lost cause. Someone branded you as a failure. Someone dismissed you as insignificant. Don’t listen to them. They don’t know what they are talking about. A divine spark indwells you. When you say yes to God, he blows on that holy ember, and it begins to flame. It grows day by day within you. Are you perfect? No. But you’re being made perfect. He bought you and owns you and has a wild and inexplicable love for you. His love for you does not depend on you.
You are God’s idea. God’s child. Created in God’s image.
Would you let this truth find its way into your heart? You were conceived by God before you were conceived by your parents. You were loved in heaven before you were known on earth. You aren’t an accident. You aren’t a random fluke of genetics or evolution. You aren’t defined by the number of pounds you weigh, followers you have, car you drive, or clothes you wear.
CEO or unemployed – doesn’t matter.
Hot list or not list – doesn’t matter.
Blue-blooded or orphaned – doesn’t matter.
High IQ or low standing – doesn’t matter.
First string or cut from the squad – doesn’t matter.
You are being made into God’s image. Print that on your resume. You are diamond, a rose, and a jewel, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. In the eyes of God you are worth dying for. Would you let this truth define the way you see yourself?
Max Lucado appears on LIFE TODAY this Monday. Taken from Unshakable Hope: Building Our Lives on the Promises of God by Max Lucado. Copyright © 2018 by Max Lucado. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson. www.UnshakableHopeBook.com
