Unimportant

Self-loving……. Self-respecting……..Confident…… Important

I don’t know about you, but when I see these words I am utterly uncomfortable. Not one of these words pops into my brain when I describe myself. “Well, I guess I’m an ok person.” It would be hypocritical of me to tell you all that I have it all together when it comes to who I am as a person. Honestly a lot of the time I don’t just love me. The truth is………. (dun, dun, duh) I don’t a lot of the time. The word that comes to mind as my feelings as of this very moment is more so something like: unimportant. Quite the opposite of our little word bank. Doesn’t that word just sting? Unimportant. One thought of that word and you’re fired up and want to cry all at the same time. It’s not fair. Why me? Is there something wrong with me? Am I really unimportant?

Ladies and gents, if you have ever felt this way then you are not alone here! Unimportantness, yes I know it’s not really a word, is just a symptom of our bigger issue; sin. When sin entered the world so did such characteristics as pride, greed, laziness, and, you know, unimpotantness. When we let sin have a peek into our hearts it throws everything out of whack. We feel worthless because that’s exactly what sin wants us to believe. The issue is not a matter of whether or not you matter; it’s a matter of where you’re focus lies. When my heart is chasing after something worldly, maybe good, but still worldly, I look for my self-worth in that thing. I find my importance in whatever has my heart. We are all that way. Maybe you are struggling as well. Maybe you find your worth in how you dress, or different relationships, or in your abilities, or in your status to the world around you. It could be a number of things. But sadly nothing will ever make us feel valued. Everything will fall short in bringing us joy and satisfaction.

But there is One who calls you loved, chosen, special, and so very important. There is One who will never leave you feeling worthless. His Name is Jesus and He loves you just as you are and He always will. He values each of us so much that He bled and died on a tree and conquered hell to save us from our sin and to have a relationship with you and me. He is the definition of true joy and love. Nothing can take you from Him and nothing can make Him love you less.

So….. what it boils down to is this: when we do not put Him first and let something or someone else have that front row seat we will feel unimportant. Real confidence is found in Jesus and what He is in us.

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.” Psalm 139:13-15

You are important.

-Heather Grace

What A Friend!

  Friend. When hearing this word, it's easy to overlook its true meaning. "Well, sure, I've got plenty of friends," you may reason. "Some are better than others. But why is it important? And 'What a Friend We Have in Jesus'? What is that supposed to mean?" Maybe you think the word is demeaning, and the phrase "What a Friend..." puts Jesus in a box. "But He's so much more than a friend!" you protest. And you're right. But maybe the problem here isn't the value of the word "friend." Maybe it's our perception of that value.
                 
                                ...

 Last night, I was lying in bed, and--if you're anything like me you'll understand this--my body was ready to go to sleep, but my brain wasn't. So I started thinking about the lesson from my Acteens class in Sunday night church. Now if you don't know what Acteens is,  it's a girls Bible study class for 7th through 12th grade, and it's a really great opportunity for the girls of my youth group to gather together in God's Word. (And I may or may not be getting paid to say this!) Anyway, last night, we started a new summer Bible study about Jesus and His love for others. The passage we were studying was Matthew 22:36-40, which says, "'Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the Law?' Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.'"

  I know you may be reading this right now and thinking, "Ok so we need to love God and be a friend to others. But what does this have to do with God being a friend to us?" Well, one great thing about the Bible is that everything fits together perfectly and precisely. So why is Jesus our friend? Because being a friend is an act of love and, as 1 John 4:19 says, "We love because He first loved us." A friend in its truest form is someone who selflessly puts the interests of another before their own. And what better way is there to show friendship than by sacrificing life itself to do what is best for others. Surely, the fact that Jesus really is a faithful companion is proven even more in John 15:13, "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." That right there shows us beyond any doubt that we are all personal friends of the Creator of the Universe! How amazing and wonderful is our God, that He would know and love the humblest of souls who call on His name! God knows that we will never fully grasp everything He is, so He gives us a name for His mercy that everyone can understand. We all possess an innate desire to feel special and loved, to know that we mean something, and our God is the supplier of all needs. To put it in simplest terms, we want a friend, and that's exactly who He is. What a God! What a Savior! What a friend!