What Are You Worth Without Your Money?

A commentary by Amanda Stiver

Are you only as important as your paycheck?

When the bank has failed, the account is empty, the electricity is off and the computer is useless—what are you worth?

In an affluent world that measures accomplishment by currency, the society around us often loses touch with basic human worth and fixates on financial résumés. We live in that world, too, and absorb the thought currents that surround us.

What if…?

What if we lived in a society that wasn't based purely on a system of financial wages? What if we lived in a society that valued work and the fruits of physical and agricultural effort above hard currency?

Sounds like something from Karl Marx, right? Thankfully no—try again!

Picture a government that is instructed by a just and peace-inducing moral code. One that cracks down on people who prey on others for financial greed and conduct business using the age-old robbery called usury—extremely high interest rates.

A society that is based on free enterprise, but that prevents the downward spiral of generational poverty with laws that periodically emancipate those in significant debt. Not only that, but a society that values increased agricultural yield while preserving the genetic integrity of plant and animal life.

Sounds like the green movement, right? Not quite—but keep trying!

How about…?

How about a world with minimal illness and physical deterioration as the result of positive behaviors and dietary codes allowing the human body to achieve the highest level of good health? How about a system of belief that produces the maximum level of happiness and joy-filled living ever witnessed on the earth?

Sounds like the latest best-selling book on finding spiritual and physical perfection, right?

Wrong—the truth is, all of the above descriptions are derived from one source—the Bible. The Word of God outlines a future society that far outshines what humans have ever imagined, and it's been sitting in the words of the prophets of God for thousands of years!

Remarkably, this foretold society will soon exist, lasting an entire millennium—inaugurated by no less than the return of Jesus Christ to the earth! To learn more about that time please read "The Wonderful World Beyond Today…A Return to Eden."

True personal value?

What does all of this have to do with measuring personal value?

A society, like the one described above, creates positive currents of thought. People are prized for their contributions—in both effort and finance—to each other and to the higher power—God.

However, if all of this is in the future, how then do we apply that same sense of value now?

This is the part that requires changing our thinking processes and stepping out of the mainstream by reading, understanding and following the law of God in the Bible. The Ten Commandments that God gave the ancient nation of Israel and that Jesus Christ taught to those who followed Him are designed to produce the positive outcomes listed above.

When we value God, by following His ways, He promises certain blessings, not because we're so great that we deserve them, but because God values us. He made our lives possible. He loves His human creation. In fact, He loves us so much that He is willing to bring all who have ever lived and will ever live into His spiritual state of existence as His family—now that is value!

Simply put—your worth is in the eyes of God. VT