Have you ever felt unworthy? My guess is that unless you are someone so full of hot air that you cannot see straight you have felt unworthy at one point in your life or another. You perhaps have received praise as a worker, as a parent, as a spouse, or in one of the many other vocations in life that people have, and all you could think is I am not worthy of this compliment. This is something that we all struggle with from time to time for some and most of the time for others. Part of the reason we feel unworthy is because in many ways it’s true. Before you get mad or cry let me explain and I will use myself as an example.
Last night my son said to me, “I have the best daddy in the world.” There is not a doubt in my mind that he truly believes that he has the best daddy in the world as it helps when there is no one to compare me to. There is also not a doubt in my mind that I am defiantly not the best daddy in the world. I don’t feel worthy to be spoken of in those terms because I don’t see myself through my son’s eyes I see myself through my own eyes which don’t even reveal things as they truly are because they are probably much worse. I see myself as one who loses his patience very easily at a three-year-old who is very active. I see myself as someone who wants to spend time alone rather than spending time playing Guess Who or Candy Land. I see myself as not the greatest father in the world but rather a father who makes a lot of mistakes and has a lot of areas to improve on. I don’t feel worthy of the praise that my son gives to me.
My lack of deserving to be called the greatest dad ever is one thing but people’s lack of worthiness is much more problematic when they feel like they lack worthiness in even more important areas of their life. Yes more important than parenthood. The fact of the matter is that many people don’t feel worthy to even be call children of God. Many people don’t feel worthy to receive the grace of God. Many people don’t feel like they are much of anything standing before a perfect God. Just like my parenting skills and my lack of worthiness to be classified as the greatest dad ever none of us are worthy to be called Children of God. None of us are worthy to receive the grace of Jesus Christ. None of us are worthy to be forgiven. Now if you spend any time in a bible believing church you should not be surprised by this, yet so often in our minds, we stop right there. We simply say I am not worthy, but that is not where Christianity stops. The fact of the matter is that you are worthy because God has made you worthy through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You are worthy because of the grace that you have received. You are worthy not because of your own inherent worthiness or even a worthiness that has been “empowered” by God. You are worthy simply because of JESUS and what he has done for you.
When we focus on our sin and our sin alone it is no wonder we don’t feel worthy because we are not, but when we focus on our Savior we can understand that our worthiness is in Christ alone and in Christ we can wage war on our worthless sinfulness because before God that sinfulness is gone and he calls us his children.
Pitching Preacher 