Even Soiled and Dirty Our Value Is Not Diminished

John 8:3-11

Soul Food

John 8:3-11 (NIV)

“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.”

Soul Search

• What kind of value do you place on yourself?
  Can you talk about why you believe you’re valuable?
  Can you talk about why you struggle believing you’re valuable?

• As a child growing up did your parents make you feel valuable and important?
  Did you have someone other than your parents who made you feel valuable and important?
  Who were they and can you share about them?

• Growing up, did you have parents or others in your life who made you feel valueless and unimportant?
  How have you dealt with this – or not dealt with it - as you have become an adult?

• Is there a mistake or failure in your life that has disabled you badly and that you haven’t recovered from?
  A mistake or failure that has caused your sense of self-worth and value to be so low that you feel like you have little-to-no value?

Soul Moves

• Ask God to help you see that no matter how dirty, abused, stepped on and mistreated you have been, that it doesn’t diminish your value to God in any way.

• Ask God to begin creating or restoring a sense of self-worth and value to you.
  There may be a lot to unpack with God and someone like a counselor.
  God wants to pick you up from the low place you’ve been and clean you up and begin working with you as the valuable son or daughter you are to Him.

• Ask God to help you forgive anyone in your past who has torn you down and possibly abused you and made you feel worthless.

• Get into God’s Word, the Bible, and read about what God says about you.
  Read the gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - where you will learn about the life of Jesus, God’s Son, and how He handled people and how He taught them (and you) about God’s love for them.
  Also read the Psalms as they are full of verses that underscore your worth to God.