…I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.  With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself. Jeremiah 31:3b

Scrolling through social media occasionally nets some nuggets like this statement: Your value does not decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth.

The source is unknown, but the thought is spot on.  We do not gain value from the opinion of, or valuation by, other people. We struggle with this though. We want to be seen as successful, tough, capable, loved and valued. But we’re legendary at looking for a sense of worth in all the wrong places.

Here’s the bottom line: If we’re looking to someone else to give us significance—or anything other than God–we will always be disappointed. “Fearing people is a dangerous trap,” says Proverbs 29:25. There’s only one unchanging source of significance and that’s found in the opinion of the One Who created us, loved us, sacrificed Himself for us and constantly seeks us out.

In His letter to us, the Bible, God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3b NIV). “…I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1). “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Ann Voskamp writes, “When your identity is in Christ, your identity is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  Criticism can’t change it.  Failing can’t shake it.  Lists can’t determine it.  When your identity is in the Rock, your identity is rock-solid.” [1]

Regardless of what anyone else ever thinks of you, “As long as God is for you…You aren’t your yesterday, you aren’t your messes… You are enough for all that is, because He always is.”[2]

[1] Sala, Darlene, and Sala, Bonnie. “Getting Personal.” Created for a Purpose, OMF Literature, Manila, Philippines, 2019, p. 149.

[2] Ibid.