Wired Week 2

Maybe you don’t feel like they listen to you.

Maybe you feel like your opinion doesn’t matter to them.

Maybe you wish they’d spend more time with you.

Now think about God.

I felt like God had given up on me because of all the bad stuff I’d done. Being a church kid, I had heard that God loved me and sent His Son to die for me. But I didn’t even think I was worth that kind of sacrifice. I sure didn’t feel like He was still with me and for me.

Do you ever feel like, out of all the billions of people in the world, am I really worth God’s time and attention?

When we try to guess what other people think about us and then let that determine what we think about ourselves.

If you assume people at your school don’t like you, it’s easy to not like yourself.

If you assume God has given up on you, it’s easy to believe you’re not good enough.

Maybe you’re holding on to an old regret or a habitual sin. And you feel like you’ve disqualified yourself from being loved. Maybe you experienced something painful—something that was done to you—and you’ve concluded that your value is very low. Maybe you believe something negative about yourself, your looks, or your personality.

maybe you just feel weird and different from everyone else. And you live in a world that says avoid the weirdos.

Have you ever come into a movie theater and missed the first part of the film—maybe the first 10 or 15 minutes? It’s difficult to know what’s happening, isn’t it? You may be confused: “Why is he saying that? Who is that character? Why does this scene matter?” It’s hard to understand if we miss the beginning.

In the same way, it’s difficult for us to understand how much we matter unless we go back to the beginning when God set all of this in motion. In Genesis (the beginning), God created the earth and the sky and trees and animals. And then He breathed life into the first man. His name was Trevor. I’m kidding—his name was Adam. And then God created Eve because, and I quote, He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone ( NIV)”

Genesis 1:27 CSB

27 So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.

And then the writer concludes with this powerful exclamation point:

God saw all that He had made, and it was very good ( NIV).

Genesis 1:31 CSB

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good indeed. Evening came and then morning: the sixth day.

Why was it very good? Because God saw Himself in what He had made.

What I discovered is that it’s hard to love ourselves if we don’t feel like God loves us. In fact, it’s hard to even like ourselves.

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! ( NIV).

1 John 3:1 CSB

1 See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him.

Think about this for a second. God could have called us lots of things—stamped us with a million different titles. But He chooses to call us His children. It means you matter. No matter what you’ve said, done, or thought, God calls you His.

Regardless of how other people have treated you, God says you’re worth it. Regardless of what your parents have said or not said about you. God calls you His child. You’re worth it. Regardless of how you feel about yourself, you are important, valuable, accepted, and loved because you have been declared a child of the God of the universe.

God always loves you as you are right this second.

Nothing adds to that value, and nothing takes away from it.

Application:

What’s the best way to do that? The Bible. I once heard someone describe the Bible as God’s love letter to us. Just like it’s important to refill a car with gas, it’s important to fill your mind with the truth of God’s love for you.

But it’s not enough to just read it. You must make a decision to accept it. To believe it, you must personalize it and embrace it. Reading can help you, but reading alone doesn’t change you. When you begin to make decisions based on what it says, that’s when real change happens for you.

Anybody can compare themselves to other people! Anybody can believe the opinions of others and treat them as fact, but if you’re going to believe something, don’t you want to base it on something that’s actually true?

Let’s go back to the verse we looked at from John:

1 John 3:1a NLT

1 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.

You probably haven’t used the word “lavish” in a sentence your entire life. According to merriam-webster.com, here are some definitions of lavish:

Giving or using a large amount of something

Given in large amounts

Having a very rich and expensive quality

If you’ve been going to church for a while, you’ve probably heard—or even said—the phrase, “God loves me.” And maybe there are even times when you believe it. But do you ever think about it in large amounts? Ridiculous, over-the-top, rich quantities?

Do you ever see God as a Father who LAVISHES you with His love?

He does. And those ridiculous, over-the-top, rich quantities never change. They remain constant. God always loves you as you already are.