Life lessons

Earlier in the year, I (Daniel) joined the team in MAF that distributes our weekly PrayerPoints e-mails. Each week these go around MAF accompanied by a devotional 'blurb'. For my first seven blurbs I wrote about my 'life lessons', and I thought I would share these here over the next few weeks. So, here goes...
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God seldom allows the opportunity of us going through tough times to pass without teaching us something. There are several life lessons I learnt during my struggles with anxiety and depression. These are they…

Lesson 1: “My value is found in who I am, not what I do – I have nothing to prove”

I don’t know about you, but I find it very easy to let my identity and self-worth be defined by what I do. Essentially, that means I value myself based on the feedback I absorb (either rightly or wrongly) from other people.

Of course, the problem with letting other people define your value is that they can also take it away - intentionally or unintentionally - with a look, a passing comment, or a poorly worded e-mail. Giving other people the power to determine how you feel about yourself can, in turn, drive your behaviour - you need to work harder and achieve that bit more, so that people applaud you and you can feel good about yourself again – at least for a while.

But God doesn’t think that way. We talk a lot about God’s ‘unconditional love’, but it’s easy to get used to the jargon and completely miss what that means. Our Father values us for who we are, not what we (or don’t) do. And who we are is defined by His love for us. The song ‘Good, Good Father’ expresses it well:

“…I'm loved by you. It's who I am, it's who I am, it's who I am”

The true origin and only reliable source of our identity and value is that we are loved and accepted by God - regardless. And He loved us ‘while we were yet sinners’. Nothing you do can make God love you more, or less.

Does that make you breathe a bit easier? Does that help you believe that maybe, even if you don’t work 10 hours today or meet that deadline, your world isn’t going to collapse around your ears? 

Obviously there’s nothing wrong with doing a good job, but if you only feel like a worthwhile human being when you’ve done a good job, then you are setting yourself up for a lifetime of unnecessary pain.

It is vital to realise that there is no relationship between our value as a person and our performance. I have value because God loves me and accepts me, uniquely and individually.

You might think this devotion is a load of nonsense - but I don’t care; God loves me anyway 😊