I love to tell people the good news of Jesus Christ. What a deal! We are sinners and can’t possibly begin to be reconciled to God by anything that we can do on our own, but we aren’t hopeless. God sent Jesus to die for our sins and anyone who believes in Him will be saved! It can’t get any sweeter than that.

Then you start walking with God by praying and reading His word and letting HisHoly Spirit fill you, and you discover that you are not just saved from yoursins, but you are loved better than you could ever imagine! I love the way thebeloved disciple wrote it in 1 John 3:1, How great is the love the Fatherhas lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is whatwe are! It gets even better.

We are dearly loved children of the Father. The only bad news is that many ofus don’t know it. We don’t know how much we are really worth. I’msure that is one of the reasons why Jesus told the story of the Prodigal Sonin Luke 15. He was addressing some people who didn’t know what they wereworth. Don’t get confused, they didn’t have a poor self-esteem; quitethe contrary, they were pretty certain that they had God all figured out andthat they were in quite good with the Creator of Heaven and Earth. After all,they were living by every letter of the Law He had given them and beyond it.They felt worthy of the Father’s love, but they still didn’t knowwhat they were worth.

This story of the Prodigal Son reveals that we cannot know what we are worthuntil we know that we are not worthy to be called His child. It takes some ofus longer to realize that than others. The story begins with two sons who feelvery worthy of their father’s love; the older one because of his obedienceto his father, and the younger one because of his birthright. In fact the youngerone tallied up his worth and determined that he was worth his rightful shareof his father’s belongings and took no shame in asking his father if hecould cash in on it early, before the father passed away. As the story progresses,the younger son comes to his senses and thinks about his father’s houseand realizes that he is not worthy to return there as a son. This was the pointthat the son first began to know his true worth. Before he left home he didn’treally know what he was worth.

You first begin to know that you are God’s child when you finally realizethat you are not worthy to be called His child. Up until that time, you willalways be miscalculating your true worth.

Now nobody wants to read a devotion encouraging them to come to the place wherethey finally realize that they are unworthy, but I am asking you to do just that.There is a sweet discovery awaiting you. You will look up into the eyes of yourFather who has come out to you with His arms open wide. Finally, you will beable to reach back and receive His love and know your true worth. That’sexactly what happened to the younger son. The older son never really knew hisworth and the reason is he never made the same discovery that he was not worthyto be called the son of his father. All the while he assumed he was worthy becauseof what he did for his father. Which son will you be? Have you discovered yourworth by first coming to your senses? There is a healthy, good unworthiness inthe presence of your Father’s compassion