Devotions by Christine Caine

Read Psalm 71:20–21

Even if our misadventures carry us to the depths of the earth, God will restore us to honor and comfort us.

The Highest Value

I once saw an illustration in a church service that profoundly impacted me. The speaker held up a brand-new, crisp $100 bill and asked the congregation if anyone wanted it. Of course, we all shouted that we did. The speaker then scrunched the note up and jumped on it. He held it up again, only this time all scrunched up, and asked who still wanted it. Again, everyone shouted that we still wanted it.

He then described the history of that bill. He proceeded to tell us that the $100 bill had been used to buy drugs, to pay for sex with a prostitute, and then had been stolen. He finished by asking us who still wanted it. Undaunted, the entire congregation immediately raised their hands; we were all still willing to take it. We all understood that the value of money was not determined by what it had experienced or even how it looked. Its value was determined by the Treasury Department that had printed that bill. The speaker then drew the parallel between our view of the $100 bill and God’s view of a lost person.

That day, I truly began to understand that our value in God’s eyes is not determined by our past, our achievements, our failures, or our circumstances. Rather, our value is determined by the love that God has for us. That value is expressed in the fact that Jesus died on a cross for every single one of us, in spite of our shortcomings. Jesus did not wait for us to get cleaned up before rescuing us, for “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Even on our worst day, we are worth the blood of Jesus—and nothing is more valuable than that.

We live in a world that often gives more value to animals, the environment, and individual rights than it does to people, but there is nothing more valuable to God. He loves all of us. Further, God places the highest value on lost people. If he didn’t, he would never have sent Jesus to seek and save all of humanity. Where would you and I be today if God did not value lost people? All of us were once lost and needed to be spiritually rerouted. And we would still be lost today if believers we know had not reached out to us.

Point to Ponder

God places value on every human being—priceless! He grieves over every person who is lost. When you reach out to those who are lost, you are bringing joy to the heart of God.