Worth

“The words of the godly are like sterling silver; the heart of a fool is worthless. The words of the godly encourage many, but fools are destroyed by their lack of common sense. The blessing of the Lord makes a person rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.” (Proverbs 10:20-22 NLT)

If someone asks you about your “worth,” where do your thoughts typically go? According to current statistics, Elon Musk has the greatest net worth of any other human being in the world, yet, I wouldn’t trade my life in Christ for his earthly assets.

As a follower of Jesus, we should and, on some levels, MUST see worth through the lens of the currency of heaven – love! “God so loved…!” Why is this so important? Because if we’re not careful, especially when we’re young, we’ll sell our soul to the devil and not even realize it. It’s not our intention; it just happens as a byproduct of our misguided ambitions.

To lust is not necessarily evil. In Romans 1:27 Paul uses a word for lust that is normal, like the desire for food or for sex with your husband or wife. Desire in those contexts is normal, but can be distorted and misused in ways that lead to sin. And yes, that’s true with sex and food.

But in Romans 7:7 Paul uses a different word for “lust” that has a completely different meaning and is a deliberate effort to gain or do something that is wrong. What’s my point? In some ways it doesn’t matter how we became the person we are, we are ALL sinful, lost, and stand spiritually bankrupt before a holy God and, if not for His love, would be bound for an eternal hell apart from Him and all that is good.

To casually pursue the things of the world as if that’s all there is, is to forfeit the riches of the Kingdom of God. Martin Luther wrote: “God doesn’t love us because of our worth, we are of worth because God loves us.” Does God not love Elon Musk because he has a large net worth? Of course God loves him as much as He loves me and you, but our worth in the sight of God isn’t determined by our material net worth, but by our love for Him.

When we begin to understand how much we can be when we yield our life and allegiance to Jesus, material possessions pale in comparison. I think of the man of whom Jesus spoke in His parable in Matthew 13:44: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.”

Make no mistake, Jesus IS the Treasure in the field, and, at least as it relates to us, Jesus IS the Kingdom of God. To pursue Him is to pursue God’s Kingdom. The Kingdom of God isn’t something material, it’s a relationship with a very real spirit Person who once had a body like ours but now has a body like the one He will give us in heaven.

Jesus further said in Matthew 12:35: “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart.” What determines whether a person’s heart is good or evil? Jesus! If He lives in our heart, we’ll do good, but if He doesn’t, while we may be able to do some good things, the intent is always less than godly, thus evil.

In this season of life, whatever that looks like for you, seek the Lord Jesus with everything within you. Hold nothing back! Give Him everything you own, everything you are without reservation. That’s essentially what Matthew 6:33 means. When you find the Kingdom of God, you’ll understand your worth.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊