Your Life Matters

“You were bought with a price”—1 Corinthians 7:23a

Your life matters to God. How do I know? I hate to be cliché, but because the me tells me so. The Bible tells me of a God, who according to His own free will fashioned Adam out of dirt. The Bible tells me that He gave life to this man, and told him to tend to the Garden wherein he was placed. The Bible tells me that all of God’s creation was good, except one thing—man being alone. So God, in His love, gave man a companion, woman, to be his helpmeet. The Bible tells me that this man and his wife sinned and brought about what is commonly called the “Fall” of man. Sin and death entered in because of the man’s disobedience. But the Bible tells me that God, in His indescribable and unfathomable wisdom, provided a substitute to come and die for man in order to be sure that he wasn’t regulated to that lost estate for eternity. God in flesh came unto His creation to secure man’s redemption.

Why? Why did God do this? He would have been perfectly loving and just to leave man in a state of sin and death. He didn’t have to save us. It wasn’t God’s fault that Adam sinned, nor is it God’s fault that we sin. He doesn’t tempt anyone. We sin because of our own sinful and rebellious desires. But why did He come to die for us? Because of His love, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life”—John 3:16.

D.L. Moody, the great 19th century evangelist, relates the story of Henry Moorhouse, a famous English boy preacher, who preached at his church. For seven consecutive nights, Moorhouse preached on John 3:16, telling about the love of God from Genesis to Revelation.  D.L. Moody’s son, wrote about the impact it had on his father,

For six nights he had preached on this one text. The seventh night came and he went into the pulpit. Every eye was upon him. He said, ‘Beloved friends, I have been hunting all day for a new text, but I cannot find anything so good as the old one; so we will go back to the third chapter of John and the sixteenth verse,’ and he preached the seventh chapter from those wonderful words, ‘God so loved the world.’ I remember the end of that sermon: ‘My friends,’ he said, ‘for a whole week I have been trying to tell you how much God loves you, but I cannot do it with this poor stammering tongue. If I could borrow Jacob’s ladder and climb up into heaven and ask Gabriel, who stands in the presence of the Almighty, to tell me how much love the Father has for the world, all he could say would be: “God so loveth the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

It was the love of God that melted Mr. Moody’s heart. He wrote,

“I never knew up to that time that God loved us so much. This heart of mine began to thaw out; I could not keep back the tears. It was like news from a far country: I just drank it in. So did the crowded congregation. I tell you there is one thing that draws above everything else in the world, and that is love.”

And whom did God love? Us. He loves you and He loves me. Mr. Moody was changed by the fact that God loved him and his life mattered to God. How much do you matter in the sight of God? So much that He sent His Son to die for you. He paid the ultimate price to save you. He gave His Son for your life. And He wants you to know that your life matters. It is not by accident that you were made. God fashioned you. As David so well knew,  

“For You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; my soul knows it very well”—Psalm 139:13-14.

God made you for Himself. And He wants you to know that He died for you. Even while you were still sinning against Him, He chose to die for you. He also wants you to know that He will never leave you, nor will He forsake you. If you have trusted in Christ for salvation, then He will never, ever leave you. He has a plan for your life (Jeremiah 29:11). It might be hard to see right now, but God is working something in and through you that you cannot imagine. So, no matter what happens, no matter what crisis comes your way, He will be with you, and continue to love you. Simply trust in that. Cling to it and never let go. Amen.