You Are Precious

"You were worth dying for..."

Those were the precious, reassuring words I heard the other night—in the wee hours of the morning, from the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. 

It was a gentle whisper, but powerful—penetrating my weary heart and soul.

However, so as to not be misunderstood here, I do want to clarify that, in of ourselves—in our flesh; we have no worth to God. Not because of any good things that we try to do. There is absolutely nothing that we can do to make Him love us. We are only of great worth to God because He made us for His good pleasure and because He made us to be the objects of His love. That is what I mean by saying "worth dying for."

Because of His goodness and grace, God took worthless sinners like me and called me the pearl of great price. That's amazing grace!

It's about God's love for us—not about our attributes. Truth is, we're sinners who deserve Hell for sinning against God. But because of His love, goodness, mercy and grace; "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever shall believe in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

However, our Enemy who never sleeps, who only comes to steal, kill and destroy, is very adept at bringing the accusation against us that we're worthless to God. "You screwed up, again! No hope for you, pathetic little Christian! "

Wrong.

I know that in my flesh, dwells no good thing.  In of myself, I was not worthy of salvation.  I couldn't fix myself or save myself.  I could never be "good enough."  I desperately needed Christ the Savior.

But before He created the universe and the world, He knew me—knew you—intimately. 

And before time began, His plan all along was to leave the splendor of Heaven, and come to earth to become a Man—the Son of Man—and give up everything—laying down His life—to restore the severed relationship with fallen humanity.

You and I, as the objects of God's love, are precious to Him.

Jesus teaches us the parable of the pearl of great price in Matthew 13:45-46:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

The first time I read this passage, I assumed that the kingdom of Heaven was the beautiful pearl, and the "merchant" represented a man like me, who, having found it, "gave up everything he had" to obtain it.

But that's not the meaning or the intent of the passage in Matthew at all. 

My Mom once told me that when she first became a Christian, that she thought she would have to give up so much to be close to God.  But she said that God showed her she didn't "give up" anything, but rather, He set her free from all those harmful or distracting things that were not good for her or beneficial.

You don't have to "give up everything" for God to accept you.

You only have to surrender your heart and hurts to Jesus Christ, and invite Him in, to bring eternal life and salvation to a lost soul, acknowledging that you cannot possibly fix yourself, or be 'good enough.'    

You and I are the beautiful pearl of great price, precious to God. And God gave up everything—His only Son—sending Him to die on the Cross—to obtain us.  He laid down His life and gave up all He had, because you and I were given worth by His grace for us.

Grace changes everything.

If you're feeling unlovable, or worthless, or inadequate, please stop and really consider what God did by giving up everything for you.  You are of such great worth and value to God.  You are the pearl of great price.  And He laid down His life for you, and for me.

I am absolutely convinced that if God knew there was just one person in all of history who would believe in the redeeming work that Christ did by dying on the Cross and then receive Him into their heart as their Savior, that He would still have chosen to come and die on that Cross for that one person.

That's how much He loves you.

So, when the Enemy, or cruel people accuse you falsely or spitefully take advantage of you—please remember this parable of the pearl of great price.  And then rejoice that you were that precious pearl, and Jesus Christ died for you, so that you could be His daughter or son—His family.

Jesus said (John 3:16):

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."

God has made you to be the object of His love.

—God is Love, and Love Never Fails.