You are important

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"You are important" By Diane Webb

Psalms 33: 21—"For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name."

Trusting God leads to rejoicing. It's a great feeling to rejoice. Rejoicing in your heart is even better. It comes from deep inside. It's from pure joy. This is what happens when we trust God. God proves himself to us over and over again when we trust him. When we think there is no hope yet we still trust; God reveals his goodness, mercy, and grace towards us. He moves mountains for us. He heals, he provides, he works miracles—for us. We all can think of a time God answered our prayers in an obvious and spectacular way; when no amount of logic could explain it away. God has moved in our behalf in large and small ways. Sometimes he does it just to show how much he cares about us and our little life. God is amazing and the great news is that each and every one of us is important to him. None of us is greater or lesser to him. He has no favorites among his people. Many of us grow up with a subtle but powerful message we are not important; that we don't count. This can carry through to adulthood; in our relationships, our homes, and our work settings. People reinforce the feeling we don't count or are not as important as others. We do this to ourselves as well; by always putting ourselves last to the point we feel insignificant and unworthy. We end up not taking good care of ourselves because our time and resources are taken up by others. God does not want us to be selfish (self-serving) but at the same time he does not want us to feel like nothing or nobody either. He expects us to take care of ourselves so we can better serve him. We cannot serve him if we are physically and emotionally depleted. Even Jesus had to go away by himself at times to renew himself (Matthew 14: 23). One of the greatest commandments according to Jesus is to "love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matthew 22: 39). Notice it says "as" not 'instead of" or "above" or "ahead of". We are to love others the same as we love ourselves. If we hate ourselves and treat ourselves like dirt then we really are not capable of following this commandment. You cannot give what you do not have. If you do not have any respect, love, or value towards yourself then you do not have any of those things to give another person. The belief that you are less than someone else does not come from God. God holds all of his children in the same esteem. We are all worth the death of his one and only son, Jesus Christ. None of us—regardless of gender or race—are considered of a lower value to God himself. Many on earth would have you believe differently but it's only to serve their purposes not God's purpose. If we choose to lower ourselves out of humility, love, compassion, or respect then that is different. You can choose to lower yourself but you still know you are worth the same as other people. As long as you know you are a child of God and as such are very important to him it is a good thing to humble yourself. Trust God and rejoice! You are important to the only one who really matters. He loves you and he is interested in every aspect of your life. He knows when you are happy and he knows when you are sad. He knows the number of hairs on your head (Matthew 10: 30). God loves you !

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for loving me in spite of my mistakes and weaknesses; thank you for taking me as your child. Help me, Lord, live up to your love and be a light shining bright before others in this dark world; help me Lord minister to others as you would have me to; help me, too, to take good care of myself. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.