When your life doesn’t conform to what the world considers normal, there are tendencies to feel inferior if your gaze is not focused on Jesus.

This happened to me.

I attached my self-worth to certain things I didn’t have and that was awful because I was never at my best.

You could say I lived from the outside – so if I felt good and confident, then I was. If I didn’t feel it, it was just another awful day to hide in the shadows unless someone affirmed me.

This went on a while until I was smack in the face with the truth!

I was praying one day and the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart:

“You have exchanged the truth for a lie.”

I was taken aback. He probably knew it too so He took me to 1 Peter 1:19-25.

He highlighted the words for me:

You were bought not with silver or gold which eventually perishes, but with the precious blood of Jesus, a lamb without blemish or spot.

He was saying in essence that I am valuable. Then He amazed me with this:

For you have been born again through the word of God which lives and abides forever because,

All flesh is as grass and all the glory of man is as the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall away,

But the word of the Lord endures forever.

Like the dawning of a new day, the understanding was imparted to me.

How do you trade God’s word which endures forever for the opinions of men, circumstances, and traditions that soon fade away?

That day I understood that my value does not come from money, a certificate, the acknowledgment, or affirmation of men.

I am valuable, chosen, and justified because God said so. 1 Peter 2:9 affirms this:

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His special people, that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called out of darkness into His marvelous light;

Who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

God doesn’t go a mile and give up. With Him, it’s all or nothing. He has given me all things.

The good news is this applies to you as well.