Our Significance

by Editor's Choice

July 2006

To me, one of the proofs that God's hand is behind and all throughout this marvelous Book we know as the Bible is the way it continually touches upon this very fear in us -
the fear that we are so insignificant as to be forgotten. 
That we are nothing.
Unconsciously, His Word meets this fear, and answers it.
(Amy Carmichael)

You are deeply significant because God created you.

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us."  1 John 3:1

1. What is your initial response to the statement, "You are deeply significant because God created you?"

2.  Do you really believe you are significant?  Why, or why not?  How is this evident in your life?

"I am deeply loved by God, completely forgiven, fully pleasing, totally accepted and complete in Christ."  (McGee, Search for Significance)

3.  Look up the following verses and describe his love for you.

Lamentations 3:22-23
Romans 8:35-39
Ephesians 3:16-19

4.  God's love is active.  He not only declared his love for us;  his attitudes and actions prove it.  Describe what God has done and is still doing to express this everlasting love to his children.

Exodus 15:13
Psalm 94:18
Psalm 147:11
Hosea 14:4
Titus 3:4-7
1 John 4:16-18

Scripture describes God as the Shepherd who "gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart" (Isaiah 40:11).  David asked, "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?... You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor"  (Psalm 8:3-5).

We see humanity's importance to God, but what about our individual and personal significance to Him?  It may be easier to recognize our collective worth as human beings than to stand alone and announce, "I am significant.  I am irreplaceable to God."

My daughter used to sing this song I now sing to my granddaughter,
"I'm something special, I'm the only one of my kind, He gave me a body and a bright healthy mind.  He has a special purpose that he's wanting me to find, so he made me something special, I'm the only one of my kind." (Gaither)

It's true!  We too often base our significance on doing and hope the activity will verify our value and lovability.  We do not easily understand that just being a person created by God makes us deeply significant.

"God made me in his image so that I dare to speak up about my uniqueness."
(Miriam Adeney)

5.  Upon what have you based your significance?  Be honest.
     -  appearance                    -  money
     -  accomplishments            -  husband, family, children
     -  fitness                           -  health
     -  success                         -  social standing
     -  possessions                   -  acceptance of others
     -  spiritual growth              -  sports
     -  friends                          -  job, occupation, career
     -  God                              -  volunteering
     -  other __________

6.  Based on your answers, to what is your significance tied?

7.  What does God say about your significance?  Write your answers for easy reference when you are tempted to feel insignificant.

Deuteronomy 32:10-11
Psalm 71:6
Psalm 139:13-16
Isaiah 44:2
Isaiah 49:15-16

God says I'm deeply significant because...

8.  How have you previously responded to God's declaration of love for you?

9.  How might you need to change your response to God's love towards you?

Embracing a God-based significance allows us to accept our strengths and weaknesses, our gifts and imperfections as part of God's design.  We can be free to be who God created us to be.  We must move beyond the false belief that we are valuable only based upon our accomplishments.  Even when someone struggles with a disability or illness that limits their activity, when they understand their worth is based on God's unconditional love not on their achievements, they can respond to God and live with confidence. 

10.  How can we lovingly respond to God?  Perhaps you already respond to him in these ways, or you would like to learn to express your love to Him as He desires.

Psalm 13:5-6
Psalm 143:8
Micah 6:8
Luke 10:27
John 14:21

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Recommended Additional Reading:

Designing a Woman's Life by Judith Couchman (Multnomah)
(this study is based upon her book)

Approval Addiction by Joyce Meyer

Search for Significance by John McGee