Feeling Worthy When We Aren’t
How does one “settle the issue of our worth” when we are taught we are not worthy?
I’m speaking of Christ-centered confidence, not self-made worth. Self-worth and self-dependence can blind us to the holiness and glory of God.
God sees us as worthy! He is like the shepherd that left the 99 sheep to look for the one lost lamb. As children of God, we need to grasp how much He loves us–only then can we help others.
“Until you settle the issue of your own worth, it’s impossible to bring holiness into anyone else’s life. Until you understand that your worth is already determined by the fact of your birth, everything else is an exercise in propping up a dying tree.”
– Carol Brazo, “No Ordinary Home”
God doesn’t throw away the pot because it is cracked–like the potter in Jeremiah He reworks and reshapes the clay. God continues to work in us to make us into something usable.
The world operates by conditional love, offering acceptance based on performance. We feel we must strive to deserve God’s love.
Discovering ourselves as accepted in Christ begins to free us to be ourselves. It eats away at the root cause of our hiding — fear of exposure. We begin to be free to be real, to drop our guards and take off our masks.
“Church begins to breathe “grace,” because everyone in church is there on the same terms. They are there because they are failures, and because they know to the roots of their beings that they are failures, and they have heard the good Word of Christ that they are accepted as failures in Jesus Christ, received as sinners.
So there is no reason to hide and pretend. The ground of our acceptance is not in us; it is in Jesus. There is no reason to put on some kind of persona.”
Baxter Kruger, Parable of the Dancing God
It is hard to believe He loves us because it seems unreasonable or we because we feel guilty or because we have failed. We know our sinful nature is not worthy; our righteousness is as filthy rags.
“The difference between Christianity and every other religion is that in religious mythology you always have to “get to God”. In Christianity God has come to us, remains with us as we are, and has gotten us into himself by getting into us – our humanity, literally!” Baxter Kruger
God’s divine and perfect love can never be earned by human effort. There is nothing we can do to get it. He has always loved us. Love to man is an emotion, but for God, it’s a commitment, a promise. While we were sinners He loved us (Romans 5:8) enough to sacrifice His only Son–the only real worthy One. Because of His sacrifice we are made worthy.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. John 13:20
We Walk in His Worthiness
Its not how much we love God–its how much He loves us.
We are righteous because He is righteous.
When we understand how much He loves us–by time in His Word–we develop intimacy with Him. When we develop intimacy with Him, we trust Him. When we trust in Him, we know it is best to conform to His commands. When we know it is best to conform to His commands, we learn to die to self.
When we die to self and conform to His laws, they become written on our hearts. When His Law is on our hearts, we become holy. Holiness is the image of God, His likeness, in Him that is holy. It is then that perfect peace follows. When others observe our confidence in Christ and our peace, they will want what we have, and we can influence them for Christ.
You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all men; and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life. 2 Corinthians 3:1-6
Reread the passage again. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God.
“In shocking grace and humility, the one expectation of the Triune God, the one thing that the Father, Son and Spirit counted on from us in order to make the incarnation a reality is that we would pour our scorn, our anger, our wrath, our judgment onto Jesus, humiliating him publicly by cruel crucifixion.
And Jesus deliberately and wonderfully endured it all. In bearing our scorn, and submitting himself to our bitter anger, Jesus met us where we are in the dungeon of our brokenness. He accepted us. He identified with us, and through having no expectations from us other than that we would reject him, he has established a personal relationship with us at our very worst. Now, Jesus lives in our dungeons, and he brought his Papa and the Holy Spirit with him.
In the very place where our disastrous dream of the Magical Other (and its poisonous demands) is born now dwells the life and fellowship and love of the blessed Trinity.”
From this blog post by Baxter Kruger.
We are worthy in Christ. Walk in it. Enjoy your relationship with God. Let Him love you.
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