What are you worth?
Psalm 103:14 (ESV)
For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
Looking around the world that we find ourselves in, I’ve come to the conclusion that people as a whole do not value life. We don’t value ourselves, we don’t value one another. When people look at you perhaps the think you are unimportant, by the way the talk to you or the way they treat you. Maybe you had people in your life who told you that you would never amount to anything or their expectations of you were so low that no matter what you did it wasn’t good enough. We see in Psalms 103:14, even the bible declares that “we are dust”.
DUST!!! Wow the bible says that we are dust. One of my first thoughts after reading Psalm 103:14 was, “How valuable is dust?” I mean you can go to Lowes, Home Depot, or some home gardening place and find dirt for sale, but who buys dust? Even in our homes when we neglect to clean those certain corners of the house, dust just accumulates out of no where. Dust really has no value, in fact it really taints what we do value. But when I looked up the word in the dictionary it said that: Dust is earth or other matter in fine, dry particles. Then I looked up the Hebrew word and it was defined the same way. The word is translated in the follow ways,
• Dust
• Earth
• Ashes
• Rubbish
• Soil
• Powder
• Ground
• Mortar
• Plaster
• earthen
That made me feel a little better, because the accumulation of dust is dirt and it does have some value. At least I can say we are worth our weight in dirt. However, if we are nothing more than a big pile a dirt, then we still don’t have much value. But the bible tell us that we are more then JUST dust or dirt,
Genesis 2:7 (ESV) - then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
Next, I wondered, about the price of a dead body to be used by medical students and CNBC had the following information,
Spine - $900
Hand and Forearm - $385
Shoulder -$500
Heart - $500
Corneas - $6,000/pair
Kidneys - $300-500
Intact Head - $6,000
Brain - $600
Knees - $650 each
Tendons - $1,000 each
Every corpse that travels through the system can generate anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 depending on how it is used.
The real question is what does God think you are worth?
As a believer, you are free from condemnation.
John 3:16-18 (ESV)
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
As a believer, you are saved.
Ephesians 2:8 (AMP)
8 For it is by free grace (God’s unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God;
As a believer, you are new creation.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (AMP)
17 Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!
As a believer, you are a son of God.
Galatians 3:26-29 (NKJV)
26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
As a believer, you are an ambassador.
2 Corinthians 5:20-21 (NKJV)
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Psalm 103:6-14
English Standard Version (ESV)
6 The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses,
his acts to the people of Israel.
8 The LORD is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
13 As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.
14 For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust.
