You are of great value

For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. (verse 16)

Read John 3:1-17

Losing something and misplacing something are two different things. Usually, the search for something misplaced is less urgent. You misplace a bobby pin, you lose your glasses! The search for something lost is relentless and often desperate, and there is huge relief when the lost is found; then the celebration is joyful.

People who are lost are valuable, and the fact that they are lost – not connected to God  -doesn’t diminish their value. People who are lost lose a lot – their direction in life, God’s protection, eternal life – but they don’t lose their value.

Today’s Bible verse tells us that God undertook a rescue mission to come and get the lost world. He loved the world so much that he sent his best, his Son Jesus, to die on the cross to pay the penalty we deserve because of our sin and guilt, and to make a way for us to have eternal life with him. Jesus said, ‘The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost’ (Luke 19:10).

Everyone is included in the world that God loved. Everyone who believes in the Son whom God gave has eternal life.

Dear Father, thank you for sending Jesus to rescue us from eternal death. Give us urgency to find the lost and bring your love to them. Bless us, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Devotion by Glenda Kowald from “Time Out … with Jesus” (Australian Church Resources, 2014)

Visit the Daily Devotion archives page.