Our Worth in Christ

Where do you find your significance? I mean, honestly, what is it that bolsters your sense of “worth” in this world. Is it your boat? Your grandkids? How about your expanding portfolio? If your dream home burned to the ground, would your sense of who you are as a person go up in flames with it?

It’s easy, isn’t it, to let other things control our self-perception. As long as activities at work are humming along nicely, we feel great about ourselves. As long as the children are not in trouble with the law, and the tomatoes in the garden are ripening, well, as James Brown would sing, “I feel good!”

Yet we pay a high price for finding our significance in any thing or person other than Christ. Things and people fail us. Cars break down, work assignments go haywire, and children don’t act as we wish. Placing your self worth in anyone other than our Lord is risky business. Trying to build a sense of significance by banking on past accolades or future achievements pays low dividends.

Consider the following long-term benefits of placing your full trust in Jesus Christ. He’s always ready to listen, even before you speak. He will always be there for you—you can’t outrun His love and care. A recent Christian song I heard summed it up: “Every second of every minute, every minute of every hour, twenty-four hours a day, He will be there for you.”

No matter what you’re currently going through, God, and God alone, is working on your behalf. In fact, as God told Jeremiah, “Before you were even born, I knew you.” Is that incredible or what? You can either put your eyes, your focus, on your self, other people, things, circumstances, how you look, or on God. It’s your choice. Each morning, actually, each moment, you decide where you put your trust. It’s your call.

As you peruse this issue of our award-winning magazine you’ll see this theme, finding our significance in Him, peering through. I urge you to read the articles slowly. Let them sink in. Ask yourself where you’re getting your “strokes,”and if it’s from any place or person other than in the finished work and person of our Savior, stop and consider the consequences. Instead, join me, won’t you, in claiming the wonderful promise of Colossians 2:10, which says, in paraphrase, “I am complete in Christ!”

About the Contributors

Charles R. Swindoll

Charles R. Swindoll has devoted his life to the accurate, practical teaching and application of God’s Word and His grace. A pastor at heart, Chuck has served as the founder and senior pastor-teacher of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas. His leadership as president and now Chancellor Emeritus of Dallas Theological Seminary has helped prepare and equip a new generation for ministry. Chuck and his wife Cynthia, have four grown children, ten grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.