God made you special and He loves you very much!

Ten simple words with an eternity of effect. I got the idea for the title from Emily's Facebook page, I got the idea for the topic from someone I love (who will not be named). God made each and everyone of us special. We were created in HIS image, that right there makes us special. The Creator of the universe created me in HIS image. Wow! That statement packs a powerful punch. I am an heir to Heaven. So why do I still feel unworthy? Why do YOU still feel so unworthy? If God chose us to be the heirs to His Kingdom and sent His Son to die for us, why do we feel so unworthy? Is it the way we were raised, is it a self esteem issue, some deep dark sin that we have in our past we don't want anyone to find out about or maybe it's all of the above? Do we deserve what God gave us? Of course not. Am I glad He did it? You bet I am!!! If God deems us worthy enough to sacrifice His Son, why don't we feel worthy? We are from a fallen, sinful world and the world says self is more important than anything. More important than our children, our jobs, our family, our spouse, our neighbors. God says otherwise. Perhaps we are trying to judge our worthiness by worldly standards and not Heavenly ones.

Dictionary.com defines worthy as "having adequate or great merit, character, or value." Isn't that what we as Christians strive for? To have a great character? To be Christ like? Well, if I'm striving to be Christ like, then I do have great character and value. Christ died because I had value to Him....I can't think of anything greater than He is to confirm my worth. It's not in what my parents said to me growing up, it's not what my friends say about me now and it's really not what I feel about myself now. Parents are human and make mistakes, friends are biased in one way or another and feelings are very deceptive. The Son of God died for me and if that doesn't make me worthy, than I have NO CLUE what will. That makes all of us worthy. Our salvation is a gift that we were given, because our Father looked at me and decided "Ashlee, YOU ARE WORTHY." He says that about you too.