Over and over again in Psalm 121, and throughout the Bible, God proclaims His protection for us. That He’s our guardian – but why?

Humanity must be valuable to him – all life is valuable to Him. He protects, He provides, and He pastors each of His children, and pursues all the lost.

Yet, it has taken me a lifetime to fully comprehend my value. Many of us can struggle with this. We have self doubt, insecurity, and feelings of inadequacy. We don’t see, or appreciate our intrinsic and very specific value.

Others may not see our value either. Perhaps some had parents who rarely shared encouragement, or affirmation for us – much less protection. This can create doubt in a young child’s heart as to their worth. Or, perhaps, we work in an abusive environment, or with those who demonstrate daily their lack of appreciate and value for us.

Likewise, perhaps we don’t value them. We don’t appreciate each other, and so the spiral goes – each feeling undervalued, and under appreciated. But God bestows value upon all of us.

A story is told of an old rusty car left by a father to his son with specific instructions for the boy to follow.

He was to seek what he could sell the car for. A car dealer offered very little, and a junk yard even less, but an antique car auction, knowing how rare this particular car was, and its potential, offered a tremendous sum.

The lesson from the father to the boy was that some may not always see your value, or may try to take advantage of it – but there are others who will. Don’t stay where you aren’t valued, and appreciate where you are.

At a deeper level, why would we ever wander from a God who loves and values us so deeply?

Often times, we simply don’t know and have been blinded/groomed to doubt our value – and when we don’t value ourself, we subconsciously allow and permit others to do the same, and doubt that anyone ever could.

Faith invites and empowers us to know and embrace God’s value for us – and His love for us breaks the chains of self contempt, and allows us to receive and believe it.

If value is determined by the level of investment willing to be made for something – how much more could Jesus have given? He gave His life so that through Him, we would receive abundant and free life.

Thankfully, as we grow in our faith, we begin to humbly value ourselves, and our purpose. And as we do, we are freed to begin to love and value what our Father loves and values – other people. All of humanity, and all of life.

Our self worth is not determined by our net worth, or our popularity. Rather, it is determined by our Father – who declares you and I are worth dying for.

The world may not value all people this way, and we may even struggle at times to value others like this, but for those in Christ, we can begin to understand our value is based upon God’s evaluation of us – not others, or even our own.

As such, we possess value whether we ever allow ourselves to receive it, or acknowledge it. What a shame to waste such a gift!

Just consider how knowing our value could radically change our life, and our interactions with others – It would manifest the exact opposite of arrogance, narcissism, ego-mania, insecurity, and fear.

Rather, it would be a joyful jubilee of humility, transformational care, sacrificial love, transparent authenticity, and a faith fueled courage leading to a life of abundance and adventure!