KNOW YOUR ACTUAL WORTH!

Once in a while my 13yr old brother and I usually sit and watch something together-something that the other person has picked. On this particular Saturday, I'd just arrived home from school of worship and he had also just arrived home from school. It was about 4pm.

After grabbing a bite to eat from the kitchen, we headed to the sitting room. My brother switched on the TV while I responded to some mail via my mobile phone. He called my attention to a movie that had just started on Nickelodeon and requested me to watch it with him, so I finished quickly and put my phone away.

 I believe the movie title was ‘Swindle’. Here's the storyline.

 

Two best friends; Griffin and Ben, stumbled upon a Honus Wagner baseball card at Ben's house in a tin that had been hidden in the wall. It looked like it had been there for a long while and they concluded that the previous house owner had put it there. They said to themselves that the card must be worth something, if someone had gone into the trouble of hiding it in the wall, and wondered how much it would cost, now that Ben and his family were at the verge of losing their house and desperately money.

 

 They decided they were going to sell it to a collectibles dealer who would know what it was. When they showed it to the dealer, he offered them $50 for it. Griffin refused and said that he knew it was worth much more, although he didn’t know how much more worth it was. After a short bargaining period, they finally sold it for $350 and were so pleased with themselves.

 

The following day Griffin and Ben saw the front page of the newspaper and could not believe their eyes. On the page was the picture of the storekeeper holding the card they had sold to him. I can’t remember what the headline read but the story read of how he was lucky to have stumbled on the card somehow, his plans to sell it for $1.2 million and how he already had buyers from all over calling him with different offers. The story was on TV as well.

  

Imagine their shock! They decided they were going to go back to this man and get their card back. When they got there, this man chased them away saying it was not his fault that they didn’t know the actual value of their card. They went out downcast and decided that they would form a team and come back and steal it.

 

We didn’t get to see how the movie proceeded on from there, as we had guests over and our attention went into hosting them.

 Anyway, what stood out for me was what the collectibles dealer said to the boys before kicking them out of his shop, that it was not his fault they did not know the actual worth/value of their card before they sold it.

Which brings me to my question: DO YOU KNOW YOUR ACTUAL WORTH?

 

 

Do you know that God bought you with the highest price-His son? That He loved you sooo much that he created you in His image and likeness with a purpose, and gave His son to die for you so that you’d spend eternity with Him? Do you know that you are the apple of God’s eye?

Why then do you settle for a mediocre life; a meaningless life without purpose; a life of merely existing and not really living? Settling for the first man that proposes/the first woman that shows an interest in you, as opposed to waiting for God’s best for you? Remaining in an abusive relationship, settling in a draining job instead of finding out why God placed you on earth and doing that? Giving yourself to a demeaning lifestyle of sleeping around, alcoholism, drugs etc., allowing people to look down on you, allowing people to misuse you? Living to serve money-the rat race-as opposed to using it to serve you as you fulfill your God given purpose, subjecting yourself to despair and hopelessness, subjecting yourself to oppressive ungodly traditions and practices…. ?

Don’t you know who you are and whose you are?

 

Like the storekeeper told the boys, you cannot blame people for not seeing your worth if you yourself have no idea what your actual worth is. Never let something/someone determine your self-worth.

 

When Adam fell, he lost sight of who he was. It is that fallen nature that hinders us from knowing our worth, bending us in operating below what God created us to be. Our first step therefore is repentance- going back to God (our author), confessing ours sins and allowing Him to be Lord over our lives.

The second step in feeding on the word. The word of God is for us to find out who God is, and therefore, who we are, now that we were created in His very image and likeness - to reflect Him. It is where you get to know your worth. Your work is to partner with the Holy Spirit in allowing Him to break the word for you in understandable, applicable bits and guiding you in the application. Application of the word of God is you living out all God made you to be.

We put our lives in grave danger if, for a moment, we think that the purpose of Bible study is just to gain knowledge and information without its practical application.

 

“It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him.” ~  Abraham Lincoln

 

When you know who you are, you will never settle for anything less than God’s best. You will not allow people to define you. You will live out your authenticity realizing that life is not a competition neither is your identity in comparing yourself with others. When you know who you are in God and live it out, you won’t sell yourself short or entertain mediocrity. Then the world will begin to respond to your identity-your purpose, whether it wants to or not. They hated Jesus yet they couldn’t take His identity from Him, nor devalue Him. Your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth.

 

Today I dare you to find out who you are because then you will know your actual worth.