Wor-thy adj. Having merit or value, being honourable or admirable; having qualities or abilities that merit recognition in some way

Monday

When I think about something valuable or of great worth the picture that comes to mind is a rare, one of a kind jewel. So incredibly priceless to the owner that it is placed where everyone can see it, appreciating it’s beauty and splendor, but where it can also be secure from any thief eager to steal it.
Imagine yourself as this jewel. How does that make you feel?
What feelings do you have with the thought that others are looking at you to find beauty and splendor within you - how you speak, behave and treat others?
God is the owner, and you are the Jewel. You are on display as a splendid woman of worth and you are protected from the thief - satan.
How have you shown your worth to others around you?
How has God protected you, His Jewel, from the thief?
Spend some time journaling what you would like to be as God’s Jewel. Ask the Holy Spirit to inspire you to ‘see’ yourself  as God sees you. Remember, beauty is often in the eye of the beholder. God is not only able to see all you are, He is also eager to see all you can become. That’s when you need to let the Holy Spirit enlighten you so you can strive to become a Jewel of brilliance!

Tuesday

“What’s the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries. Matthew 10:29-31 (MSG)

Worth can be affected by what other people think and say about you as well as how they behave towards you. But real worth comes from God - if you base your worth on people then it’s subject to feelings and failings. True worth has to rest on an unshakable foundation. It often boggles my mind that God is all and knows all! God cares about a little canary - think about that! There are events people and issues in my life that I just have to prioritise because the capacity to hold all those things in my mind and my heart is impossible. But, thankfully, God’s capacity is supernaturally unending, in fact, the word capacity probably isn’t even a part of God’s vocabulary! That’s not even the best part. The passage goes on to say that you are of incredible worth to God. He pays great attention to you. Have you ever considered the ramifications of such intensity being directed towards you?
When I was doing the last year of high school I decided that between August and December I would dedicate myself to my studies. This meant that my weekend activities were going to be severely affected! In a nut shell, I was not going to be seeing Mark, my boyfriend (now husband) for 4 months. I didn’t know what to expect during that time and hoped our relationship would survive. The first week of August I began to receive a card, note or letter in the mail. Now back in those days it was all delivered by snail mail! By the second week I began to look each day for what had been delivered. By the third week I was knew the postman by name! This went on for 4 months!!! No phone calls, no visits - nothing but mail! Some of the letters spoke words of encouragement, future hopes, prayers, bible verses or just fun chit chat. I learned so much about Mark during that time. He gave so much to me and I felt the intensity of his love. I still have a box (and I mean box!) of mail from those 4 months of my life. I can hear you sighing! And I sighed too! I felt precious, valued and priceless - I was a walking Jewel, and others began to notice. Being the object of someone else’s affection was like a polish to my dull luster. I was beaming with the worth of a woman who was honoured and recognised as precious. This God, who calls you His Jewel, has unending capacity to focus His attentions on you! What is God’s goal in doing this? To make you feel worthy, valuable, precious, honoured and loved. This should make you shine with a luster that goes beyond anything this world can give you. However, there is something else in this passage you need to know (I can hear you saying you knew there would be a catch). It’s not really a catch but more like a suggestion to get the best shine you can as a Jewel of the Father. ‘Don’t be intimidated by ‘bully talk’. Look back to the first line of today and you’ll see that it can easily rob you of being worthy. Does it stop God from pouring out worth on you? No. But you know from other relationships in this life that you can’t force someone else to receive blessings from you, and God is the same. He wants you to partner with Him in being His Jewel. There is no desire for Him to force a fake shine out of you - I guess it’s obvious that would be fruitless. When you listen to and take on board the ‘talk’ of others that brings you into a place of negativity, then your shine is bound to be a little duller than God intended. What this passage is prompting you to do is keep your eyes on the Lord and what He thinks of you. Someone who knows how many hairs on your head is bound to value you and invest their attention into you. That’s the One I choose to listen to because I don’t have to guess how important I am to Him. I am His Jewel. You are His Jewel. Don’t doubt it!

Wednesday

The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus told her, “I Am the Messiah!”
Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, “What do you want with her?” or “Why are you talking to her?” The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?”
Now numerous Samaritans from that town believed in and trusted in Him because of what the woman said when she declared and testified, “He told me everything that I ever did.” John 4:25-29 (NLT), 39 (AMP)

I fancy myself as an amateur historian when it comes to the Scriptures and it’s rich stories. I find myself entering the time and place of each wonderful story and ‘living’ it along with each person there! I have often found myself sitting on the side of this well with this woman of Samaria. She’s alone, collecting water in the heat of the day, perhaps because she is poor and doesn’t have a servant to do this work, or maybe it is a reflection of her lifestyle and social status. Either way she is a prime target for Jesus to zone in on! This woman is of such worth to God that He orchestrates every detail to fulfil this hap chance meeting. So what does Jesus do to make this woman worthy? Firstly, He places Himself in her world. Jews were not interested in associating with Samaritans. The history between them was one of animosity, the Jews having a superior attitude and the Samaritans having a subordinate attitude. Culturally, Jesus as a Jew, would have re routed His journey to avoid Samaria and any kindness from them. But instead He seems to purposely head there, and in particular, to the well where no other woman was working but one. After sending His disciples on a mission for food (which I think is amusing seeing as He has produce food out of basically  nothing before), then He is able to focus His intense attention on His Jewel. I often smile as I read this whole story (and it’s worth the read) because this woman was a target of Christ to receive worth and feel worthy. She had no idea when she went to draw water that it would be an eternal change for her both in this life and the next! Secondly, Jesus breaks the preconceived behaviour between Jews and Samaritans. I love the way Jesus does this - He simply asks her for a drink. Now think about this. He gives her the power and opportunity to give something she has every ability to give. He gives her the opportunity to succeed in this encounter. That’s what building worth in someone is about - giving them an opportunity to shine. In asking for water from this Samaritan woman Jesus is showing a cultural value for her that is unprecedented from any other Jewish encounter. Thirdly, Jesus engages in a conversation with her as a woman. Now even within the Jewish culture, women were not considered as valuable as men. This woman must have been extremely perplexed with Jesus ’crazy’ behaviour. What was he thinking? Didn’t he recognise her as a Samaritan? Perhaps not. But surely he can see she is a woman! He would certainly be disciplined if the Jews caught wind of this behaviour! Well, that’s what I’d be thinking if I were her! Fourthly, Jesus exposes details of her life without judgement or shame. She is brought into an intimacy with Him where He can speak honestly with her about her life and still maintain her worth. If you’re wondering what kind of response this kind of worthiness produces then look at the last part of this passage. It tells us that this woman, moved by the encounter with Jesus Christ, responds with an evangelistic heart. She returns to her town where she is known as a woman of poor reputation and shares her new found faith. This is what being a woman of worth is about. She became a Jewel in the hands of God and shone brighter than she ever had before. Her worth and value was the reflection others saw and it was beautiful, attractive and contagious. You have the potential to be a contagious Jewel in the hands of your Father - who knows where that could lead you or how many people you could touch?

Thursday

So often I find myself evaluating why I do the things I do. Can you relate to this or am I really as odd as I sometimes feel? It is a time consuming exercise to weigh up your actions and try to reason why you have done something. I know from experience that it is an endless and frustrating road that never seems to give you a satisfying destination. Sure I can sometimes see my behaviour as a result of my personality or upbringing or attitude or environment. . .but really, I’m just too complex to understand. I was made in God’s image and He is the Maker of me and you, which makes Him the expert, not us! I find it much more satisfying to take my behaviour or feelings or attitudes or reactions to my Maker and let Him work in me to bring understanding and good out of it. I allow God to polish me, His Jewel, when the shine becomes dull in my life. I don’t have the power or expertise to repair my worth. I have discovered that it’s a free and wonderful gift from my Father. It can’t be replicated or tarnished. It is pure and ample. I can’t find it anywhere else because it is an intimate exchange that takes place between God and His child. You have the opportunity to be completely affected with the worthiness of God in your life. It will be better than any experience earth can provide because it has eternal ramifications. You are forever changed when your worth is at the level God ordained it should be. When you allow yourself to believe the worth God has for you then it can’t help but reflect out of you and affect others. You are going to be a radioactive woman! Everyone will be well aware that your life is imitating a heavenly quality and it will be infectious!  So what kinds of things do we (you and I, and everyone else) struggle with when it comes to embracing our ordained worthiness from God? Right from the Garden of Eden we have been challenged to look suspiciously at who we are to God. satan has a life long goal to destroy us. Why? Because his greatest longing was to be ‘like God’ and instead got himself a one way ticket south! Then, after the chaos he caused in heaven, God decides to make a new creation, and in His own image no less. So you are a constant reminder of what satan wasn’t and couldn’t achieve by force or any other method. So, like any strategic enemy, he begins to undermine the relationship between God and His Created. This is where your story begins to be affected, particularly in the area of worthiness. satan cannot remove the redemption offered to you through Jesus, but he can infect your opinion of how precious you are to God. I’ve heard the lies before, and so have you. . . ‘Everyone’s saved, you’re not really special, but more like one of the crowd’ or ‘You’re in God’s family, but He takes anyone who believes. He’s God, He has to take you!’ These thoughts, and many more like them, are like a toxic chemical that eats away at your worth. You begin to believe that God’s promises, plans, love and grace are measured out according to your worth. And the ‘kicker’ is that satan is destroying your worth as he speaks, so you begin to lower your level of worth in your own eyes and expect God to do the same. Now, if you’ve installed a ‘satan liar alarm’ within your heart, then there is always the angle of what others you respect and listen to think of you. The beauty about this is that it is not always what others say, but what they don’t say. Is there a resounding bell going off in your head about now? We all want to be recognised and appreciated and honoured in some way. When that is the currency of your worth and you don’t receive it, then you start to become worth deprived! The interesting thing is, if this is your currency, like other worldly traps, you begin to need more and more of it to be satisfied. But when you allow God to supply all your needs, including your worth, then you become a recipient of an unending currency of worthiness from heaven. You will never need to seek it any other place when you realize the poor replicates leave you as hollow as you were to begin with. God doesn’t work with ‘hollow’ and He is always about planting and growing new life in you. So if your worth doesn’t bring praise from your lips to your Maker, maybe you should check just where that worth is springing up from.

Friday

It has been a work in progress to write this devo. I began with a certain idea I had planned to share with you, but as it so often is with God, I changed direction with the help of the Holy Spirit. I hope it has been a worthy journey for you as well. When the idea of being a Jewel in the hands of God came on me I was engulfed with the shape and texture of who I was. A jewel in the natural world is what it is. Although it can reach it’s full potential with the right cut and setting, it is unable to grow into anything more than what it is. A Jewel in the supernatural has the potential to grow into something more exquisite than what it started out as. You have the raw materials of an awesome Jewel. Placed in the hands of God the potential escalates to a height beyond your imagination.
What kind of Jewel did you start out as when you first gave your heart to Jesus?
Think about the growth you’ve had as a Daughter of God. What changes has your Jewel taken on to be who you are today?
Now for the hard question!
What kind of Jewel do you want to be? Think about your texture and shape.
Spend some time journaling about your encounters with Jesus that have polished you as His Jewel. How has Jesus placed value and worth into your life. It may be through prayer, Scriptures, worship, people, teaching or nature. Whatever it is, let Jesus show you how precious you are, and if you haven’t had that encounter yet then let yourself go to the well and you’ll find Him there waiting for you!