Do you ever wonder where money gets its value?  What makes a 20 dollar bill worth 20 dollars?  Is the actual value of that piece of currency worth that much?  This may surprise you, but did you know that it only costs 4 cents to print a United States bill?  Whether that bill is a one dollar bill or a 100 dollar bill, it only costs 4 cents to create.  So now my question is, how did that 4 cent piece of paper get to be worth 20 dollars?  The answer is found in the fact that someone had the authority to stamp that bill with a worth of 20 dollars, knowing that its value would never change.

In light of this, have you ever asked yourself where your value comes from?  God has made it abundantly clear in scripture that we receive our value from him.  Psalm 139 says if we were to count the number of thoughts God has toward us, they would outnumber the grains of sand on the earth and the number of stars in the sky.  God thinks about us a lot!  Not only are we God’s most prized possession, but to Him, we are worth dying for!  In fact, Jesus endured the most painful and gruesome execution ever created by man to show us exactly how much he loves us.

Like a paper bill, materially, we aren’t worth much.  Scripture says we were formed from the dust of the earth.  The last time I checked dirt isn’t worth much.  But we are invaluable to God because we are created in His image and filled with His life through His Spirit!  So why don’t we feel that valuable so much of the time?  Quite simply, we give into the lie that other people have the authority to tell us how valuable we are, when they have no authority to place value on us as human beings.

Others value us based on what we do and personal preference.  They judge us based on how we look, how we act, how smart we are, how athletic we are, popularity or lack thereof.  Truthfully, these attributes have nothing to do with our value, because God never made them a part of His value equation!  His value is based solely on the fact that you are His and He created you exactly how he wanted you to be!

Be encouraged today!  Read Psalm 139 and don’t let the world place value on your life when they have no authority to do so!