Our Dear Rajan,
Love and Greetings from Daddy and Mummy!!
Thank you for your last letter. Your question on self-worth is very important. Every person faces the question of his personal worth some time or the other. If any person ever comes to the conclusion that he is not worth much either in his spiritual life or in his social life, he will face frustration.
We do not usually do this evaluation consciously, but it goes on constantly in our unconscious thinking. This results in much self-pity frustration, and even depression.
This world evaluates self-worth on the basis of performance, looks, or self-esteem. But this is foolish because none of these is stable. Nor are they the right type of criteria for such an evaluation. A Christian should use only Biblical standards to evaluate spiritual matters or anything else which is related to his life as a whole. If wrong type of standards is used, he will face numerous problems.
The first problem is that one never knows when he has achieved enough to be able to rest. If our achievement is the criterion for evaluating our worth, then the more we achieve the more we will find others who are ahead of us in something or the other. The Lord definitely wants us to reach great heights, but not for self – evaluation. Rather our achievements in life are to please our Master, who gives us strength to do everything.
The second problem is that in human systems of evaluation, comparison with others becomes necessary. This is very dangerous because it gives rise to many evil practices.
When a person is succeeding continually, he will start comparing his successes with the failure of others. This is an assured way to become proud or boastful, and pride is sure to result in spiritual fall. Pride will make us cruel too. On the other hand, when a person is failing continually, he will try to justify his shortcomings. To do this, he will have to speak lies about his own achievements, and also to criticise the success of others. He will constantly be on the defence. He will try to diminish the achievements of others, while he magnifies their weaknesses. This results in all kinds of jealousy, gossip, malice, and bitterness.
The third problem is that false fronts become necessary. Since no person can succeed all his life, and since every person has his own weaknesses, people living under such a system start giving a false appearance of success in everything. Such false outer appearance is harmful for our spiritual life because dishonesty is destructive to spiritual life. Our life should be based upon honesty and straight forwardness.
Fourth, if we use the human system of evaluation, then the older we get, the more miserable we become. This is because with age our capacity to strive and win keeps diminishing. We will note our score going down below our own previous achievements. There will be numerous younger persons who seem to be doing much better than us. This will again distort our spiritual balance in many ways.
The Lord does not want any of us to evaluate our own self- worth in any of the human ways designed by us. He knows us very clearly that we human beings do not have any worth of our own even after we are born into Christ’s family. And therefore, He himself never evaluates any one of us on the basis of our own human merits. Instead, He has given us certain spiritual assets and qualities to give us a lasting worth.
The Word of God tells us that at the moment of our salvation, God gives several unchangeable/irreversible gifts/ things.
These are things of infinite value, and once we have them inside us our value is also immeasurable. The first such gift is, Justification by Faith. At the moment of our salvation, God declares us as free from sin and guilt. Not only this, He imputes the righteousness of Lord Jesus into our lives. So, every person who has been born into the family of God stands before God as fully holy and righteous because of his union with Christ. We do not have to prove our worth to God before we can approach Him rather, He has imparted an infinite worth into us by uniting us with Christ our Lord. All that we have to do now is to try to walk according to the worth given to us.
Another thing which the Lord has given to every believer is a spiritual gift. Irrespective of who and what we were in the past. He has given us the Holy Spirit as a seal of His ownership, and He has made us priests, kings, and royal ambassadors. Outwardly we might not look any different from anyone else in the world, but we are very much different from them. They crave to obtain at least a single position, but the Lord has given us numerous positions.
Once we realise that the Lord has infused us with things and qualities of everlasting value, we will stop evaluating ourselves with petty things of this world. This will put an end to our habit of comparing ourselves consciously or unconsciously with others.
May the Lord help you to understand your spiritual worth which He has already granted to you. Realising this, strive hard to exhibit this to others.
With all love, Your Dad and Mom,
TOM & ANN.