How valuable are you to God?

[KingJ]

When we go through hardships we wonder this. Nothing except the actual need being met can comfort us. But is this true?

There is scriptural truth and impeccable logic that we can hold onto to see us through hardships. Truth as tangible as the need being met.

Scripture:

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

God showed us that in His eyes we are worthy of the greatest love He is capable of.

Matt 6:26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Jesus is using an extreme example to make an extreme point. It actually sounds a bit sarcastic. If you add a ''Hello....'' at the start you will see what I mean.

John 9:31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will.

This is a very important verse to understand. It is God telling us that if we are after His heart, He hears our prayer. Not ''He does not'' hear our prayer. Not ''if we repeat scripture over and over with much fasting he may hear our prayer'.' So we can fully conclude that whatever prayers seem unanswered have certainly not gone un-heard.

Psalm 125:1 Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. Matt 10:39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

David is telling us to put our full trust in the Lord. Jesus qualifies this.


Impeccable Logic:

Non-Christian: Look at the creation you are and your surroundings. All the people in your life. Your family. The kids you went to school with. The shop keeper. Your gym partner. The year you were born and the technology that you are surrounded with that no generation prior had access to. All of this is not co-incidental. This is all evidence of a higher power putting you where He wants you. He has a plan for your life. All the evidence points there. As much as we think we are in control of it, we are not. We can only defy Him where He has placed us. He would not do this all if we had no value to Him.

Christian: If God no longer needs us He will take us to heaven. God prefers to use us vs take us. As heaven is heaven and earth is earth. IE Earth sux. Heaven is awesome. God needs us where things are bad for as long as is possible.

We can and must have absolute trust in God undertaking for our needs. We must learn to trust His timing and will. We must grasp that we are valuable to Him.

Edit 1: underlined 'grasp' that we are valuable to Him.
Edit 2: re-underlined 'grasp' that we are valuable to Him.
Edit 3: re-re-underlined 'grasp'.

 

[Angelina]

I agree with most of your statements brother but I also think that it is because of God's Grace, his love and his mercy towards us that give us any value. He is so desirous to have us back in communion with him as it was in the beginning before the fall.

Bless ya!

 

[KingJ]

I agree with most of your statements brother but I also think that it is because of God's Grace, his love and his mercy towards us that give us any value. He is so desirous to have us back in communion with him as it was in the beginning before the fall.

Bless ya!

Amen!

 

[rockytopva]

John Bunyan in his young years was slothful for the things of heaven himself. In his Grace Abounding book Bunyan notes how he picked up the habit of swearing (from his father), suffered from nightmares, and read the popular stories of the day in cheap chap-books, "Until I came to the state of Marriage, I was the very ringleader of all the Youth that kept me company, in all manner of vice and ungodliness".

By his own account, Bunyan had as a youth enjoyed bell-ringing, dancing and playing games including on Sunday. One Sunday the vicar of Elstow preached a sermon against Sabbath breaking, and Bunyan took this sermon to heart. That afternoon, as he was playing tip-cat (a game in which a small piece of wood is hit with a bat) on Elstow village green, he heard a voice from the heavens "Wilt thou leave thy sins, and go to Heaven? Or have thy sins, and go to Hell?" Bunyan then runs into the founding members of the Bedford Free Church movement and begins to take his religion more seriously, and to write and to preach, until the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The act of Uniformity would put him at odds against the English establishment and almost get him deported.

There was a point when Bunyan was called to take his religion more seriously, which would land about half his life in prison, but also make him very valuable to the Kingdom of Heaven. He would come to write the following Epistle encouraging others to take their Christianity serious as well....

THE EPISTLE TO ALL THE SLOTHFUL AND CARELESS PEOPLE

Friends,

Solomon saith, that The desire of the slothful killeth him; and if so, what will slothfulness itself do to those that entertain it? (Prov 21:25). The proverb is, He that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame (Prov 10:5). And this I dare be bold to say, no greater shame can befall a man, than to see that he hath fooled away his soul, and sinned away eternal life. And I am sure this is the next way to do it; namely, to be slothful; slothful, I say, in the work of salvation. The vineyard of the slothful man, in reference to the things of this life, is not fuller of briars, nettles, and stinking weeds, than he that is slothful for heaven, hath his heart full of heart-choaking and soul-damning sin.

Slothfulness hath these two evils: First, To neglect the time in which it should be getting of heaven; and by that means doth, in the Second place, bring in untimely repentance. I will warrant you, that he who shall lose his soul in this world through slothfulness, will have no cause to be glad thereat when he comes to hell.

Slothfulness is usually accompanied with carelessness, and carelessness is for the most part begotten by senselessness; and senselessness doth again put fresh strength into slothfulness, and by this means the soul is left remediless.

Slothfulness shutteth out Christ; slothfulness shameth the soul (Cant 5:2-4; Prov 13:4).

Slothfulness, it is condemned even by the feeblest of all the creatures. Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise (Prov 6:6). The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold (20:4); that is, he will not break up the fallow ground of his heart, because there must be some pains taken by him that will do it; therefore shall he beg in harvest, that is, when the saints of God shall have their glorious heaven and happiness given to them; but the sluggard shall have nothing, that is, be never the better for his crying for mercy, according to that in Matthew 25:10-12.

If you would know a sluggard in the things of heaven, compare him with one that is slothful in the things of this world. As, 1. He that is slothful is loth to set about the work he should follow: so is he that is slothful for heaven. 2. He that is slothful is one that is willing to make delays: so is he that is slothful for heaven. 3. He that is a sluggard, any small matter that cometh in between, he will make it a sufficient excuse to keep him off from plying his work: so it is also with him that is slothful for heaven. 4. He that is slothful doth his work by the halves; and so it is with him that is slothful for heaven. He may almost, but he shall never altogether obtain perfection of deliverance from hell; he may almost, but he shall never, without he mend, be altogether a saint. 5. They that are slothful, do usually lose the season in which things are to be done: and thus it is also with them that are slothful for heaven, they miss the season of grace. And therefore, 6. They that are slothful have seldom or never good fruit: so also it will be with the soul-sluggard. 7. They that are slothful they are chid for the same: so also will Christ deal with those that are not active for him. Thou wicked or slothful servant, out of thine own mouth will I judge thee; thou saidst I was thus, and thus, wherefore then gavest not thou my money to the bank? &c. (Luke 19:22). Take the unprofitable servant, and cast him into utter darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 25:26-30).

WHAT SHALL I SAY? Time runs; and will you be slothful? Much of your lives are past; and will you be slothful? Your souls are worth a thousand worlds; and will you be slothful? The day of death and judgment is at the door; and will you be slothful? The curse of God hangs over your heads; and will you be slothful? Besides, the devils are earnest, laborious, and seek by all means every day, by every sin, to keep you out of heaven, and hinder you of salvation; and will you be slothful? Also your neighbours are diligent for things that will perish; and will you be slothful for things that will endure for ever? Would you be willing to be damned for slothfulness? Would you be willing the angels of God should neglect to fetch your souls away to heaven when you lie a-dying, and the devils stand by ready to scramble for them? Was Christ slothful in the work of your redemption? Are his ministers slothful in tendering this unto you? And, lastly, If all this will not move, I tell you God will not be slothful or negligent to damn you, whose damnation now of a long time slumbereth not, nor the devils will not neglect to fetch thee, nor hell neglect to shut it's mouth upon thee.

Sluggard, art thou asleep still? art thou resolved to sleep the sleep of death? Wilt neither tidings from heaven or hell awake thee? Wilt thou say still, Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, and a little folding of the hands to sleep? (Prov 6:10). Wilt thou yet turn thyself in thy sloth, as the door is turned upon the hinges? O that I was one that was skillful in lamentation, and had but a yearning heart towards thee, how would I pity thee! How would I bemoan thee! O that I could with Jeremiah let my eyes run down with rivers of water for thee! Poor soul, lost soul, dying soul, what a hard heart have I that I cannot mourn for thee! If thou shouldst lose but a limb, a child, or a friend, it would not be so much, but poor man it is THY SOUL; if it was to lie in hell but for a day, but for a year, nay, ten thousand years, it would (in comparison) be nothing. But O it is for ever! O this cutting EVER! What a soul-amazing word will that be, which saith, Depart from me, ye cursed, into EVERLASTING fire! &c.

Object. But if I should set in, and run as you would have me, then I must run from all my friends; for none of them are running that way.

Answ. And if thou dost, thou wilt run into the bosom of Christ and of God, and then what harm will that do thee?

Object. But if I run this way, then I must run from all my sins.

Answ. That is true indeed; yet if thou dost not, thou wilt run into hell-fire.

Object. But if I run this way, then I shall be hated, and lose the love of my friends and relations, and of those that I expect benefit from, or have reliance on, and I shall be mocked of all my neighbours.

Answ. And if thou dost not, thou art sure to lose the love and favour of God and Christ, the benefit of heaven and glory, and be mocked of God for thy folly, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; and if thou wouldst not be hated and mocked, then take heed thou by thy folly dost not procure the displeasure and mockings of the great God; for his mocks and hatred will be terrible, because they will fall upon thee in terrible times, even when tribulation and anguish taketh hold on thee; which will be when death and judgment comes, when all the men in the earth, and all the angels in heaven, cannot help thee (Prov 1:26-28).

Object. But surely I may begin this time enough, a year or two hence, may I not?

Answ. 1. Hast thou any lease of thy life? Did ever God tell thee thou shalt live half a year, or two months longer? nay, it may be thou mayst not live so long. And therefore, 2. Wilt thou be so sottish and unwise, as to venture thy soul upon a little uncertain time? 3. Dost thou know whether the day of grace will last a week longer or no? For the day of grace is past with some before their life is ended: and if it should be so with thee, wouldst thou not say, O that I had begun to run before the day of grace had been past, and the gates of heaven shut against me. But, 4. If thou shouldst see any of thy neighbours neglect the making sure of either house or land to themselves, if they had it proffered to them, saying, Time enough hereafter, when the time is uncertain; and besides, they do not know whether ever it will be proffered to them again, or no: I say, Wouldst thou not then call them fools? And if so, then dost thou think that thou art a wise man to let thy immortal soul hang over hell by a thread of uncertain time, which may soon be cut asunder by death?

But to speak plainly, all these are the words of a slothful spirit. Arise man, be slothful no longer; set foot, and heart, and all into the way of God, and run, the crown is at the end of the race; there also standeth the loving fore-runner, even Jesus, who hath prepared heavenly provision to make thy soul welcome, and he will give it thee with a willinger heart than ever thou canst desire it of him. O therefore do not delay the time any longer, but put into practice the words of the men of Dan to their brethren, after they had seen the goodness of the land of Canaan: Arise, say they, &c., for we have seen the land, and behold it is very good; and are ye still, or do you forbear running? Be not slothful to go, and to enter to possess the land (Judg 18:9). Farewell.

I wish our souls may meet with comfort at the journey's end.

John Bunyan

 

[Angelina]

I like John Bunyan...Amen!

 

[StanJ]

I am valuable enough that Jesus said in John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

 

[rockytopva]

How valuable are we to God?