You Hold Great Value in God's Eyes

The lie: I’m not valuable. No one cares what I think. I’m overlooked.

The truth: David was labeled. That’s right, King David, whose bloodline included Jesus. The same David God said was a man after His own heart. And he wasn’t labeled by just anyone; he was labeled by his own father.

The prophet Samuel had the task of choosing Israel’s next king. God led him to the house of Jesse. Seven of Jesse’s eight sons were present. Samuel was ready to anoint the next king, so he started with the tallest and strongest. Yet 1 Samuel 16:7 tells us, “The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’”

God told Samuel the same thing He tells us now—that we have to look on the inside because the label on the outside might not reflect who they are. This is why it is so important to reject labels that are contrary to what God has said about you. Otherwise, you might miss your calling by listening to the lies others have wrongly spoken over you.

As Samuel continued down the line, God said no to each son. Were there any others? Jesse said, “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep” (16:11). Samuel told Jesse to send for him.

The king would come from Jesse’s family. But the son He had labeled wasn’t there. Jesse “sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, ‘Arise, anoint him, for this is he’” (v. 12).

My friend, don’t allow the labels placed on you to discount who you are and whose you are. God used David to do things we talk about to this day. He may have been overlooked by his earthly father, but he wasn’t unnoticed by His heavenly Father. Neither are you. God is going to use someone to do something incredible—why not you?

Lord God, thank you for looking past outward appearances to the heart. Help me to do the same today as I go about my day, I pray. Amen.