Am I Significant?

Significance, Google defines significance as “The quality of being worthy of attention; importance.”  Oxford dictionary adds “The meaning to be found in words or events.”

We are created with an innate desire to be significant.  Many of us are able to find our significance in our work, title, achievements.  Praise and rewards are like wind in our sails, motivating us to keep going, to maintain or increase our level of importance.  It feels good to be identified as successful.  But what happens when the company has to downsize and your job is on the list, when you discover you are replaceable, or an accident or illness takes you out of the arena of importance, disabling you to perform, and puts you alone on the couch to recover?  Do you become insignificant?

As a young child I loved to sing.  My younger brother, Shawn, found a children’s opera album in the library and brought it home for me to listen to and I loved it.  As the story goes, when my parents realized I was singing opera at age seven they decided to put me in voice lessons.

When I was eleven I listened a guest speaker.  He said that the gifts we have were given to us by God to use for his glory.  I knew those words were for me.  In child-like faith I realized my calling and committed to use my voice for the Lord.

As the years went on I had many opportunities to sing.  I was the little girl, then a teenager, with a “big voice”.  At sixteen I sang the national anthem on the opening game day for the Philadelphia Phillies and that winter for the Philadelphia 76ers.  I also traveled the east coast with a teen choir during the summer then again at age seventeen with an international music ministry called ‘The Continental Singers’.  We traveled the southern states and Bermuda.

However, during this summer I didn’t know what was taking place in my body.  While on the trip I was achy and tired most of the time so I would take Advil to ease the pain.  If you are a vocalist these days you may know not to do this because it thins your blood vessels.  I didn’t know.  I had the finale solo every night and would sleep on the bus every day to have strength for the next night.  We traveled by bus from California and we were now in Florida.  The concert was coming to an end, the finale song was building with intensity but as I went to hit the last few high notes something happened and not a sound came out.  I had a vocal cord hemorrhage.

Why would God allow this to happen when I committed my gift to Him?  Who was I without my voice?  I didn’t understand how much music defined me until it was gone and I didn’t know of anything else that made me special.

To my relief, I discovered my significance isn’t performance based.  The source of my significance is found in my relationship with Christ.  So with or without my voice I remain significant because the God of the universe says so.

Our significance prevails, despite our circumstances or failures, because God loves us!  While we still rejected him, Christ died for us.  He proved we are significant to Him by loving us first.  We matter that much to Him!  He wants a relationship with you and I and Jesus made it possible.  He offers the gift of salvation to each of us and once we receive this gift He makes us brand new, forgiven, and pure in the eyes of God.   Look at who He says we are as a new creation in Christ:

• You are His masterpiece, a new creation in Christ. Ephesians 2:10
• You are loved with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31:3
• You are a child of God. John 1:12
• You are cared for by God. I Peter 5:7
• You have purpose. Exodus 9:16, Ephesians 2:10
• You are chosen. Ephesians 1:4-5
• You are redeemed by grace. Romans 3:24
• You are forgiven. Isaiah 43:25-26
• You have been made pure. Titus 2:14
• You are righteous. Ephesians 4:24
• You are created in God’s image. Gen 1:27
• Your citizenship is in heaven. Philippians 3:2
• Your salvation is secure. Ephesians 1:13-14
• God knows you. Psalm 139:1
• God is with you. Isaiah 43:3
• God saves your tears in a bottle. Psalm 56:8
• God hears you when you pray. Jeremiah 29:12

Whatever challenges you are facing today, remember, it does not define you, your Heavenly Father does.

Dear Lord,

I come to you with a thankful and humbled heart.  It’s hard to imagine that I mattered to you even when I still rejected you.  Thank you for loving me first and expressing your love through Your Son, Jesus, who paid the price I could not pay, to offer salvation as a gift to me.  Thank you for forgiving me and making me a new creation.  Thank you for your Word so I can know you and your promises.  Thank you that my hope and significance is found in you.

In Jesus name,

Amen

*Friends, please know I would love to hear from you.  If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email me at myhopeunveiled@gmail.com.