Instagram followers, comments and likes, relationships, promotions, name brands on shoes, labels on purses, platforms and microphones, bank accounts … these are all things we can be tempted to look toward for our validation, our self-worth, and for acceptance.
Social media has only intensified our human propensity for looking around us for our worth. Scroll for a few minutes and suddenly your tennis shoes are the wrong style, your cabinets are the wrong color, and your body is the wrong shape. Favor and fame can literally be measured by post likes and comments and shares.
But are these really the things that define us?
Temporal things have never and will never fully answer the questions that are burning in our hearts as we seek to find assurance of love. These things fade.
Our worth can not be found in these things we can see. Things of earth that pass away can never fully answer the questions, “Am I known? Am I loved?”
Our worth can’t be plotted on a chart comparing brokenness to blessings. Just look at Job and Esther. One lost everything and lived through brokenness, betrayal, and pain in his walk with God. The other was elevated to royalty and lived in luxury, plenty, and security in her walk with God. Can you imagine if Job and Esther lived in 2024 and were comparing their IG reels? Brokenness or beauty. Questions or answers. Pain or plenty.
These are not the things that dictate our worth or value or dignity.
What dictates who we are is a blood-stained, old, rugged cross. ⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16
"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us…." 1 John 3:16
"… and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:1-2
So, the next time you’re tempted to look at a number in your bank account or grids on your screen to gauge your worth, cast your eyes on the cross. It’s all there.
The answer to your heart’s longing. The validation and security you need. The acceptance. The love.
Jesus paid the ultimate price on a blood-stained cross for the “joy that was set before Him.” That joy, dear sister? It’s you. You are loved more than you can comprehend or imagine. You are more valuable than rubies. You are fully known, fully loved, fully accepted, and fully redeemed through the power of the cross. It’s all there.
