Recently two of my pieces of teaching have coincided interestingly. Last Sunday, I completed a sermon series on the skeletons we hide in the closet of our hearts. This series finished with a sermon about depression, but all of them focused on our life having value and worth in God’s eyes. He sees us as his precious child, no matter how we feel about our past or present.

While I was teaching this series on Sunday morning, I was teaching the teenagers on Wednesday night, a series called “The Haves and the Have Nots.” This was focused on building a self-image based on God’s view of us rather than comparing ourselves to others.

Both materials were two sides of the same issues, “How do we develop a proper view of ourselves as humans?” My sermons are available online, but the material I taught the teens is not. I thought this would be an excellent place to share my four foundational blocks of a Godly self-image.

1. You are created in the image of God. God created humanity unique above all the rest of his creation. We have intellect, emotion, and a soul. Just by being a human, you are special. Not only that, but the Psalmist says you were knit together in your mother’s womb. You are not only created in his image, but your picture is unique.
2. You are saved by Jesus. God so loved the world that he sent his son to save it. You are part of that world. God loved you so much that he sent his son to die and save you from your sins. This is true, no matter what you have done.
3. You are adopted as a child of God. When we come to Jesus, we are not treated as slaves; we are his children. As his dearly loved children, we are also heirs of the promise of Jesus. We are part of the family of God with him as our Father.
4. You have a purpose. The Apostle Paul says that are God’s handiwork. That word can also be translated as his poem or my favorite, his masterpiece. This is a description of what God does to us after we come to Jesus. There he remolds us, using our past, present, and future to do his good work in the world.

I have spent four weeks driving these points home in our teens. Many of them feel worthless, because they do have enough money, own the right things, have good grades, are not excelling at sports, and a host of other issues. They have the world telling them that they came from nothing and are going to nothing. Our teens and many of our adults are swimming in a sea of misery, worthlessness, despair, and depression because of their lack of self-worth. I tell people you have no self-worth, but you do have Godly worth. Those are things that can never be taken away.

No matter who you are today or what you have done or how you feel about yourself, these four principals are eternally true. God created you, loves you, views you as his child while having a grand design for you. May these truths comfort and guide you this day, week, and your whole life long.