Worthy

Bookstore shelves are overflowing with information on finding worthiness. There is a hole in our hearts that desperately wants to be filled, and author after author genuinely seek to encourage self-esteem, self-image, and self-love. Our culture is engulfed in selfies, self-first, and self-help. We can buy books teaching us how to think better, work better, play sports better, treat others better, love God better, and the list goes on and on. Completely centered around self, society watches the hole grow bigger and desperately grasps for more self to fill it with.

I came across one of those “jump off the page verses” last week. In Romans 13, Paul gives a sermon to the Jews reminding them of God’s provision for them. He follows up with the promise of a Savior and the fulfillment of that promise. The Jewish congregation is excited and invites Paul back to speak the next week. A crowd draws as Paul begins to speak the gospel, but something strange happens. The bible says, “When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. They began to contradict what Paul was saying and heaped abuse on him,” (v.45). These are the same Jews that invited him back for round two. What happened? Self happened. They saw Paul was drawing a crowd unlike any they had drawn. The hole they were trying to fill with popularity or status in society was emptying quickly. Paul was stealing their thunder and they wanted it back.

The next verse grabbed my heart, “Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: ‘We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles,’” (v.46). Jesus is the word (John 1). God said rejecting the Word equates to “not considering yourselves worthy of eternal life.” Every self-worth book on the shelf can not even begin to amount to that single sentence. The struggle to fill the empty hole will only end when we realize that the gift of eternal life is the only way to fill it. Self will never fill the hole. Only Jesus can fill the hole.

So, we question…if we have Jesus, why do we still struggle with filling the hole? Why do we get defensive when someone questions our intelligence? Why do we get offended when attacks come that aren’t deserved? Why do we care what others think? Why do we fill our lives with material items that make us feel better? Somewhere along the path we forgot that only Jesus fills the hole.

One of our youth spoke last night and really left an impression on me. She was speaking about God’s armor. She said that when we put on our own armor or our own defenses we lose. When we step into a “fleshy” armor, we lose. The Jews in Romans 13 got jealous and picked up a fleshy armor to defend their self-worth. Ironically, they rejected Jesus and made themselves exempt from what they were seeking in the first place—worthiness that will fill the hole. When we take off God’s armor and lean on our own defense system, we step away from Jesus and into a place where “we do not consider ourselves worthy of eternal life.” We empty the hole Jesus filled and subconsciously begin trying to fill it with self. We forget that no matter how “fulfilled” self becomes, it won’t get us to heaven; only Jesus can.

Lord Jesus, I want to walk the streets of gold with You. I want to spend eternity in the light of Your glory. I want to throw off the things of this world that hinder me and finish the race set before me. Remind me to get up every morning and put on Your armor. Remind me that Your ways are what is best for me. You are my Father, my Creator and my Defender and I need nothing else. In Jesus’ name.