THE SCENARIO: Axios, a Christian, does not feel very worthy, both with respect to others and with respect to Jehovah their God. All their life long they have labored for merit in these areas. But most personally appraised higher vistas of hard sought after corroborative, albeit mundane commendation, have only ever led them ultimately into lower valleys of conflicting self-doubt.
In the outworking of this scenario please consider the following:
1. A secular psychologist would consider self-worth a basic human need, something to be attained much like other basic human needs, such as breathing, eating, sleeping, friendship, family, and so forth. And they would look to their person and/or their environs to attain to the same. In this process they or their environs set the standards that inform their self-worth. Self-worth for a Christian, on the other hand, is transcendent by comparison, in that they look to Jehovah God to set the standards that inform their self-worth. In consequence of this, a Christian understands that they have absolutely no intrinsic self-worth whatsoever—God’s humanly unattainable standards make this point abundantly clear to a Christian (this is a highly unpopular notion by the way). A Christian understands further that they are not worthless in this regard, however, for all at once, in the twinkling of an eye, full compliance with said standards respecting worth are bestowed upon them through faith in Jesus Christ. It is intuitively obvious that this unmerited compliance is literally of inestimable worth. It is, of course, a gift; Christianity calls it the Grace of Calvary (Eph 2:4-8). In words—the worthiness of fully worthy (by God’s standards) Jesus Christ is imparted to believers through their belief and attendant faith in Jesus Christ (“Righteous Faith”). So we have wondered about Axios in this vein and have come to the conclusion that Axios’ level of faith in Jehovah God and His promises is not where it should be, for if it was, they would in no way see themselves as anything less than fully worthy in every respect (Rom 8:16-17). How do you see this faith premise—please discuss how one’s level of faith in God can fold back on them (for good or maybe not so good) with respect to their sense of worth.
2 We noted in the scenario description that Axios does not “feel” very worthy. Please discuss how human feelings can oftentimes blind one to what is reality. You may wish to revisit your discussion of the faith angle of point one—a thought in that connection might be that a Christian with weak faith is like a feather in a windstorm—any ‘ol opinion can crush/distract such a one by way of their feelings.
3. This point is related to point two just above. The world’s standards of worth are completely different than heaven’s estimation of the same, and we can get caught up in (blinded by) the world’s estimations pretty easily because we are bombarded by these daily (opinions regarding our God, our standards, our person, etc.)—it goes without saying that a Christian needs to have in view always the right metrics here, so we present a shortened list of heaven’s “worth-valuations”—please discuss any three of these with an eye to contrasting heaven’s and the world’s valuation estimations; if you cannot discover this contrast, see if you can discern how our God encourages keeping one’s focus on Him and the benefit of that in assessing true, equilibrating worth, irrespective of worldly opinions or one’s feelings:
Isa 51:12, Jer 9:24, Mic 6:8, Mat 6:5 , Mat 23:2-8 , Luk 6:22, Luk 14:12-14, Jhn 15:18-19, Jhn 17:14, Act 4:18-19, Act 5:29, Rom 8:31, Gal 1:10, Eph 1:3-6, Eph 6:5-8 , 1Th 2:4, Jas 4:4, 1Jo 2:15 , 1Jo 3:1.
4. Axios’ self-worth questions have two legs—one is mundane and concerns self-worth with respect to the world around them, the other is specifically spiritual and concerns their perceived worth before Jehovah their God. We have considered the former up to here, let us now address the latter. Axios is given over to earning their way because they have learned from experience that when they do this aright, a given corroborative approval of sorts likely follows. So Axios is having a hard time assimilating the fact that they have full worth before Jehovah their God apart from anything they could possibly do to earn that worth. Axios is thus in a quandary, because like the proverbial cat chasing its tail, they just work harder and harder to feel worthy before their God (approved), only to be left wanting. Now they are left wanting not because they are to some degree unworthy before Him, but precisely because they are already fully worthy before Him as a follower of Jesus Christ, and there is nothing more that they can do to add to His blessed valuations of them except to “wear themselves out” in effort to do so somehow. How would you explain to a Christian like Axios that they are already fully worthy before God owing to their standing before Him in Jesus Christ (please consider Axios’ ingrained, passionate association of garnering approval and self-worth). Finally, Would you agree that leg two here is affected by leg one—that is, Axios’ perceived spiritual worth is wavering because they have become conditioned/inclined to seeking secular/worldly approval per se? Is Satan having his way with Axios in this regard?
5. Let us digress just a touch from our worthiness theme and ask: When is it o.k., from God’s perspective, to seek the approval of others; if you do not think it is ever o.k., please explain; either way, please defend Scripturally.
6. We shall use this point to address anyone, Christian and/or non-Christian, who grew up in an environment wherein they were denigrated, made to feel “worthless,” or perhaps have suffered terrible blows in their life that “destroyed” their self-confidence and self-worth (abusive spouses, parents, work mates, kin; maybe egregiously slighted and/or passed over for something or another; maybe acutely mocked in a given setting/s, other kinds of abuse, etc.)—please allow us to say that you have inestimable worth to Jesus Christ. Perhaps that sounds like an idealization to you. If so, may we respectfully challenge you and ask you to stretch out your hand to Him—we are sure He will grab hold of it and bless you, and make clear to you what we, because of our limitations, simply cannot. Let us say further that we are not insensitive to the fact that you are probably carrying an enormously heavy burden—won’t you give it to Him? He is the consummate burden-bearer (Jhn 19:17, Gal 6:2).
7. Dear Christian friend—how do you know unequivocally that you have tremendous, righteous worth—the very best anyone could possibly possess (quintessential worth)? Please be specific and Scriptural in your answer/s; be concise and straight to the point. Now, we encourage you to write your answer/s to this point down on a piece of paper and to be highly cognizant of what you are writing as you do so. Then hang on to that piece of paper for one full week and read it out loud to our Savior Jesus in your “prayer closet” during that week, praising Him, and giving Him thanks, for the full measure of worth He has bestowed upon you and the family of believers in Him. Let us join in with you: Thanks be to our God for bestowing upon us His inestimable worth in the Beloved! May Jesus Christ bless you and yours precious and highly valuable friend.