Jesus never wastes a hurt.
The picture in this blog was taken at my home church in Enumclaw Washington. Where I had grown in my relationship with Christ, was filled with the Holy Spirit and was forced to come head to head with my own hypocrisy and what I thought were my values as a young teenager who was trying to live for myself and for Christ at the same time. It began a process of evaluating my values which led me to Bible college and eventually ministry. There was a lot of hurt as I was forced to shed my values for Christ’s values. As I understood what was true and proper for a believer in Jesus.
What are 8 things you VALUE most in life?
Those things we tell others we should all consider true and proper for everyone to share or maybe for everyone to value.
- Your Health.
- Your Friends.
- Your Gratitude
- Your Reputation
- Your Family.
- Your Education.
- Giving To Others.
- Life Experiences.
What are 8 things you NEGLECT or feel REGRET about in life?
Chances are they are the same things.
You say you value your health, but you eat poorly & don’t exercise.
You say your friends matter, but you don’t call them or you avoid them when they are struggling.
You are full of gratitude when someone helps you, until you aren’t.
You pride yourself on a solid reputation…but hope no one sees what you do when you think no one is looking.
Your family is your everything, but you won’t get off your phone or take your earbuds out when they are talking with you.
You are proud of what you know. But inside maybe there is some self-hatred or regret from the schools or trainings you could have or should have gone to.
You give, but maybe only when it makes you feel good, or makes you look good.
And you have a lot of life experiences. But how you processed those through traumatic or ecstatic episodes is something your unsure of. Maybe you don’t even like yourself because of what you went through or how you responded to those experiences.
Philippians 3:10 and 11 says “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in HIS sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead.”
The answers to our values lie in our alignment with God through Christ Jesus. Your value, in Christ, in fact, has nothing to do with you. Through salvation in Christ all regrets are redeemable, and all values are transferable. God never wastes a hurt. At the end of the day values are in fact not just practices or actions, but spiritual. Your failed attempts at fulfilling your values are even valuable to God. Because everything about you is valuable to God. Even our hurts, habits or hang ups that make us hypocrites regarding what we claim as our values. Jesus loves you. Even when we fail.
The Apostle Paul says later on in Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.”
Maybe we start there.