Verse of the Day - Jeremiah 1:5

[God says,] "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
~ Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV)

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It's easy in this world to feel like you're just a number. Social Security numbers, personal identification numbers, employee ID numbers, driver's license numbers, badge numbers...hey, what about ME? I have a name...I'm a PERSON...I have feelings...I like pizza and hate bratwurst....I cry at sappy movies...I love roller coasters, but haven't been in a long time...don't you care about ME?

The good thing is that, even though society has become fairly automated and unrelational, God is a personal God. You are not a number to Him. You are somebody in His eyes. How do you know for sure? Because you are alive. He is the giver of life, and everything He does is good!

Because of other people's expectations of you, you may feel inferior in life. Because of your own comparisons with others, you may not feel good about yourself. Please know this does not come from God. God loves you, sees you as worthy of His love, and capable of doing mighty things in His service. If you struggle with poor self-worth, I ask you to choose this day to see yourself through the eyes of your Creator...the One who fashioned you, the One who cares for you, the One who lives for you.

In the island story of the eight-cow wife, Johnny Lingo paid eight cows for a girl that was "plain at best". Shoulders slumped and skinny, the islanders thought Johnny had been ripped off by Sarita's father. This is how Johnny answered...

"Do you ever think," he asked, "what it must mean to a woman to know that her husband has settled on the lowest price for which she can be bought? And then later, when the women talk, they boast of what their husbands paid for them. One says four cows, another maybe six. How does she feel, the woman who was sold for one or two?" This could not happen to my Sarita."

"Then you did this just to make your wife happy?"

"I wanted Sarita to be happy, yes. But I wanted more than that. You say she is different This is true. Many things can change a woman. Things that happen inside, things that happen outside. But the thing that matters most is what she thinks about herself. In Kiniwata, Sarita believed she was worth nothing. Now she knows she is worth more than any other woman in the islands."

Jesus paid more than eight cows for you and for me. He paid with His suffering, with His blood, with His life. All He had He paid for His bride.

Christ loved the church and gave himself for it to make it belong to God. Christ used the word to make the church clean by washing it with water. He died so that he could give the church to himself like a bride in all her beauty. He died so that the church could be pure and without fault, with no evil or sin or any other wrong thing in it. ~ Ephesians 5:25-27 (NCV)

God made you in your mother's womb and gave you physical life. Jesus died for you so that you would have spiritual life through faith in Him. You have value...you have worth...you have purpose.

YOU ARE NOT JUST A NUMBER IN GOD'S HEART :-)

So go out today and revel in your valued position with the Lord!

Love,
Joelene