6 Ways for Women to Place Their Self-Worth in God

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1. Using God’s Measures

We are all such different creatures, and judging worth using the same measure won't be a correct or fair evaluation. It is vital to appreciate and celebrate aspects of yourself based on who God says you are by spending time in His Word. What does the Bible say about you as a creation of God? He says you are unique (Psalm 139:13), special (Ephesians 2:10), lovely (Daniel 12:3), precious (1Corinthians 6:20), chosen (John 15:16), and loved (John 3:16). If you are doing better than you were a year ago, well done. If you are doing poorly compared to how you were a year ago, what do you need to help you along the way? Is it rest? Is it a kind ear to listen? Is it therapy or rehabilitation for part of your heart and mind? 

You and I are indeed “not enough”—we need something we don’t have to help us reach our full potential. We need Jesus as our role model to help us through every situation we encounter in life. Letting the measurement of worth depend upon what God says of you in His Word will shift your understanding of what doing well really means and provide a new perspective on true success.

2. Stop People-Pleasing

We all make an imperative choice in life: to follow Christ or to follow man. As women, we often judge ourselves worthy or unworthy based on what others think of us. Following man yields a spirit of people-pleasing and the burnout that results from such. It produces disappointment and frustration, and wears upon your lapel all the assumptions others place on you. Is that who you really are and who you want to be during your life? What then is the alternative? The alternative, though counter to the culture we experience daily, is to follow Christ—to surrender what you think you want and what others have told you is the way to go about things—and to be a God-pleaser, not a people-pleaser. Remember, you cannot serve both God and man. As much as you try to reason that there is a third option, there is not. Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). 

When you deny the flesh and are reborn of the Spirit, you begin to experience life abundantly in the Spirit. This does not mean you will no longer have urges of the flesh. But, this is when God begins the process of sanctification, where He is at work conforming us to Christ's image. Ephesians 4:22–24 tells us “to put off your old self...and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” What does it mean to be the “new self” in application? Intentional living is living with purpose and pleasing God, regardless of what others think.

3. Image Bearer

When you see yourself, do you first pick out what you think is a flaw? Or what others have called a stain or lack? Or do you choose to see the truth? John 12:36 reminds us that we are not only image bearers of God but also bearers of His light when we come into salvation through Jesus Christ: “While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light. These things Jesus spoke.”

What a beautiful promise this verse offers us of coming into God’s family as His child. When you look at the person staring back at you in the mirror, that person, through salvation, is the daughter of the Most-High God, one who bears the light of Jesus Christ. Begin to speak His truths over yourself: I am loved, I am chosen, I am known. You will begin to notice the bully is silenced at the sound of His voice through His Word.

Related: What Does It Mean That We Are "Image Bearers"?

4. One-of-a-Kind

You are not a cookie-cutter person; you were made with a spectacular purpose by God Himself. Your qualities, quirks, and beauty are all from the Maker and Giver of all things good. Never has there been someone quite like you in the world, and never will there be someone quite like you again. Isn’t that a glorious reminder of our value in this world? God would see the world and all that it is, and He would see all those who have walked this planet before us, yet He would say it would not be correct without you. You are a masterpiece.

5. Defusing Victimhood

We need to find the correct way to validate what we endured in the past, while also not fall into the trap of making victimhood our identity. Your experience, be it fifteen years ago or fifteen minutes ago, of a time when your heart was bruised, your soul was wounded, or your self-esteem shaken, deserves to be recognized. After you have properly processed the event, you rise and move on so that it does not continue to hold you by making you a victim. Defusing victimhood allows you to step into victory in and through Christ.

6. Such a Time as This

The world needs the real you. Not the you that is all packaged up to be easily digested by anyone, not the you that you curate so that others will be pleased, and not the you that you bully yourself into being. The world needs the actual, authentic, absolutely once-in-an-existence you. What you bring to the table is something that no one else has ever before. Consider how in the span of thousands of years, there has never before been another you. The world has never seen someone quite like you before, and it never will again. It’s a seat only you can fill, and the world needs you. How cool is it to think that God envisioned the world and all the people and elements it held, and felt that it would be incomplete unless you were there too? Or how we are so precious to God that our lives as offering to Him are considered to be a sweet aroma (2 Corinthians 2:14). 

When we adopt the mentality of living the life we were called to live from the posture of God’s purpose-filled timing, we can see that we matter to the Kingdom, to this age, and most importantly to God.

Related: 

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