What Makes Us Valuable and Secure?

When Performance Becomes a Verdict

If our identity is found in a vocation, a relationship, wealth, physical appearance, or any other pursuit we allow to define us, our sense of value will often become tied to performance. Success or failure, whether love is reciprocated or rejected, and whether we achieve or fall short can cause our self-worth to rise and fall like the stock market.

One of the enemy's most destructive lies is not merely, "You have failed," but, "Because you have failed, you have no value." When that lie takes hold, it can produce profound hopelessness and despair. What we believe about our worth shapes how we face failure, rejection, disappointment, and loss.

Discussion

Which kinds of success or approval most strongly affect how you feel about your own value?

Why is the statement "I failed" fundamentally different from the statement "I am worthless"?

Dignity Given by God

READ GENESIS 1:26-27

Scripture provides a foundation for human value that neither success nor failure can erase. Because every person is created in the image of God, every person possesses a God-given dignity that must be recognized and honored.

Sin has corrupted every part of us, but it has not erased God's image. Our creaturely dignity does not mean that we are morally innocent or able to restore ourselves to God. It means that our value is not awarded by income, achievement, appearance, usefulness, health, or the approval of other people. Those who are in Christ are also redeemed and adopted as God's children.

Discussion

How should the image of God change the way we value people whose abilities, accomplishments, health, or social standing differ from our own?

The Cross Reveals God's Grace and Love

READ ROMANS 5:8 AND ROMANS 8:31-32

The cross reveals the immeasurable grace and love of God toward undeserving sinners: "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). God did not wait for us to become impressive, successful, or worthy of His favor.

The cross does not teach that we deserved to be redeemed. It declares that salvation is entirely of grace and that God's love is not a wage paid for our performance. Billy Graham summarized the relationship well: "Our value comes from the fact that God created us and Christ died for us."

Discussion

How does Romans 5:8 challenge the belief that we must first prove ourselves worthy of love?

Faithful Effort Without Proving Ourselves

READ JAMES 1:2-4 AND COLOSSIANS 3:23

Identity in Christ does not guarantee a trouble-free life. We continue to experience success and failure, joy and disappointment, achievement and loss. James teaches that God can use trials to produce perseverance and spiritual maturity. Trials do not mean that our value has diminished.

When our identity is in Christ, performance no longer has the authority to determine our worth. We continue to work diligently and desire to succeed, but our effort no longer carries the burden of proving that we are valuable. Faithful effort is an act of obedience; the outcome is not a verdict on our value.

Discussion

How can separating faithful effort from personal worth change the way we approach success and failure?

What is the difference between leaving an outcome to God and becoming passive or careless?

When Control Fails

Performance can also give us a sense of security - at least, mine had. I had convinced myself that a decent diet and regular exercise would carry me well into old age before I experienced any major health problems.

One evening, while working at a job site and living away from home, I completed a chest and back workout. My wife, Rene, was still in Kansas and planned to join me in a few weeks. Before I reached the kitchen to make dinner, I had to sit down. Then I needed to lie down. Pain spread through my chest and arm, and I thought I might lose consciousness. I called 911.

It took every effort to remain conscious until EMS arrived. At the emergency room, the medical team went to work like a NASCAR pit crew. I was having a heart attack, and I spent the following week in cardiac intensive care.

I lay in the operating room looking at the ceiling. The security I had felt was gone, replaced by vulnerability. Would I live or die? The outcome was beyond my control. It was in the Lord's hands. The truth is, it had always been in His hands, and it always will be.

Discussion

What has exposed the limits of your control, and what did that experience reveal about where you had been looking for security?

Security That Cannot Be Lost

READ ROMANS 8:31-39

Security in Christ does not mean that God will preserve us from every earthly loss or guarantee the outcomes we desire. It means that no earthly loss can separate us from Him. Neither death nor life, nor anything else in all creation, can separate believers from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

This security does not create complacency. I completed cardiac rehabilitation, modified my diet, and placed even greater importance on exercise. Faith trusts God with the outcome while faithfully using the responsibilities, opportunities, and wisdom He provides.

We trust Christ with our eternal salvation, yet we often struggle to trust Him with our lives today. Our confidence is not that every circumstance will unfold as we desire, but that our lives remain in the hands of the One who created us, redeemed us, and will never abandon us.

Discussion

How does Christian security differ from confidence that God will give us the outcome we want?

Why might it be easier to trust Christ for eternal salvation than to trust Him with an uncertain circumstance today?

Personal Response

Think of one current circumstance in which an outcome feels like a verdict on your value or a threat to your security. Name what faithful obedience requires, then identify the result you must entrust to God.

Discussion

Complete these sentences: "I feel that I must __________ to prove I am valuable." "I feel secure only if __________." What truth from this study speaks to each belief?