Message given by Irene on Sunday 3rd April 2022
Please read 1 John 4 v7-16, Isaiah 55 6-8 Romans 5 v 5-11
In life there are three things that we all want to find: SECURITY, SELFWORTH and SIGNIFICANCE
When we try to understand ourselves, we keep coming back to the three things that define, complete and motivate our personality. We ask three questions:
1) Who am I? 2) Do I matter? 3) What’s the point?
When we give our lives to Jesus, He actually comes to live within us, in us and through us by His Holy Spirit. We have the potential to live the fulness of life that Christ offers.
How often do we get our heads round this? Is it a truth we have become so familiar with that we’re no longer particularly excited by it? It’s very good news and it’s amazingly personal!
Ephesians 3v20 tell us, ‘God can do anything, you know, far more than you could ever imagine, or guess, or request in your wildest dreams! He does it, not by pushing us around, but by working within us, His Spirit deeply and gently within us. It’s incredibly simple, but do we really get it?
For many years of my life the three questions: 1) Who am I? 2) Do I matter? 3) What’s the point? Were probably the questions on my mind much of the time, and my answers to them were very negative. But God put good Christian people across my path who encouraged me to feel loved, valued, that I mattered. It took some time, but they persisted. They helped me to know and grow with Jesus, to know that real faith is a real relationship with the living God. He loves us and He values us!
So, if this is true, why do we struggle with these big questions of life, and with issues of fear, anxiety, guilt, irritation, frustration and so on? What holds us back from living this remarkable life described in the Bible?
Let’s explore this by looking at how we have come to this:
We are created beings, made in the image of God, belonging to Him and
IN HIM WE HAVE SECURITY.
We are intricately designed and intently valued; and in this WE HAVE SELFWORTH.
Do you feel valued?
We have been given a purpose, to look after the world and partner God in His purposes for creation, and THIS GIVES US SIGNIFICANCE
Does it excite you that God made you a partner for His purposes?
God wants a relationship with us because He loves us with His life-giving affirming love. Ephesians tells us God can do anything. He created us. He created us as thinking, feeling and physical beings. Created in His image, but with physical bodies.
I was amazed when I read these facts about our bodies:
We have 78 different major organs, each organ belonging to one of ten distinct systems. Incredibly, all of these cells, vessels and organs work together to keep us alive. We are made up of trillions of cells including a circulatory system that stretches 60,000 miles (more than twice the distance round the earth). In the human brain alone, it’s estimated that some 86 million neurons are all firing and sparking, helping us to breathe, think, reach and turn the page, laugh, cry, repair and heal.
The central nervous system is connected to every part of the body by 43 pairs of nerves; 12 pairs go to and from the brain, with 31 pairs going to and from the spinal cord. That is so awe-inspiring, no wonder the psalmist says ‘Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.’ This makes me think and understand how God meant for us to live, and begin to better navigate our search for SECURITY, SELFWORTH and SIGNIFICANCE
All the systems in our bodies are interconnected and dependant on one another. Our heart doesn’t beat unless our brain and nervous system tells them to do so. Our skeletal system relies on the nutrients absorbed by the digestive system to build strong healthy bones.
This is God’s plan for us, reliant on each other, growing together, but importantly growing with Him. God made us spirit, soul, body, all connected and working with each other. As spirit, body and soul, our inner being and our outer being are so interconnected that what happens on the inside can affect the outside. What affects the body affects the mind and what affects the mind affects the body. For example, a hormone or electrolyte imbalance in our bodies can cause emotional distress, and insufficient sleep can cause real disruption with our moods and tolerance levels. Diabetes and an under or over active thyroid gland, anaemia and various other imbalances can cause havoc with our minds and emotions. So, our problems can be physical but also spiritual.
Whatever they are, our Creator God can help us deal with them, if only we would ask Him.
1 John 3 v 1 says ‘See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called ‘Children of God’’ and that’s what we are!’
Knowing and understanding that we are loved affects our whole character and outlook on life. In today’s culture, it’s quite unusual to receive unconditional love. Time and again, people will love you for what you can offer and how you can serve their needs. It’s rare to meet someone who will reflect unconditional love to you. We don’t need to do anything to earn God’s love and attention. He loves us unconditionally, regardless of what we get wrong. He just wants to know us and for us to know Him. It’s called belonging!
Paul writes to the Romans about his conviction that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
It’s this sense of belonging that gives us SECURITY.
The biggest threat to our self-worth is shame, we get worried about what we are worth, and what people think about us, and importantly what God thinks about us. He won’t love us?
Well, yes, we are ruins, but God bought us back at the highest price, and we will never go down in value.
WE CAN HAVE SELF-WORTH
One of the things that affects our self-worth is feeling unnoticed, we haven’t been seen or heard. It creates frustration and despair. But God thinks about us a great deal, because He like us, and we are precious to Him. What’s more important than that?
Three questions
- Do you find it easier to believe that God loves you or that He likes you?
- How do you most enjoy spending time with God?
- Do you need to change your thinking about what God really thinks about you?
The third question, ‘What’s the point?’ These are words often spoken in boredom, frustration or even desperation. It’s important to know we are loved. It’s important to have a sense of self-worth, but we also need to have a sense of significance, or meaning and purpose for our lives, knowing that each individual life is unique and really counts for something.