“God doesn’t really care about me. I’m unlovable and worthless. If people really knew me, they wouldn’t like me.” Do you ever feel like this? Do you feel alone and unloved?

Whether or not we are aware of it, we all search for significance in this life. We want to believe our lives have value and purpose. We want to believe someone loves us and cares about us.

I am reading Robert S. McGee’s The Search for Significance, and I’d like to share with you some truths he shares:

• Those hopeless thoughts I started out this post with are misperceptions. If we feel this way, we need God’s light to penetrate our deepest beliefs about ourselves.
• We will never find lasting, fulfilling peace if we continually try to prove ourselves to others.
• “Christ’s death is the most overwhelming evidence of God’s love for us.”
• If our worth is based on the fickle approval of others, our behavior will reflect insecurity, fear, and anger. But if our worth is solidly based on God’s truths, we will reflect His love, grace, and power.
• “Christ is the source of our security; Christ is the basis of our worth; Christ is the only one who promises and never fails.”
• We are totally accepted by God (Colossians 1:21-22) and deeply loved by God (I John 4:9-10).
• Satan shackles us with misperceptions of our worth to keep us from experiencing the love, freedom, and purposes of Christ.
• Our fear of failure robs us of the joy and peace our salvation is meant to bring.
• Avoiding risks limits our creativity and service to God.
• In His great love, God allows us to experience seemingly negative circumstances so we can learn valuable, life-changing truths.
• “As we grow in our understanding of His (God’s) unconditional love and acceptance, we will be better able to grasp that His discipline is prompted by care, not cruelty.”
• “Many misguided preachers have used rejection and guilt as a forceful means of motivation. They expound upon our weaknesses, our failures, our unworthiness, and our inability to measure up to Christ’s high standards. Not only is our performance declared unworthy, but we are left feeling denounced, devalued, and devastated. As a result, thousands who have been broken by this rejection have left the church without understanding Christ’s accepting, unconditional love, a love that never uses condemnation to correct behavior.”
• Dependence on others for value and approval will only bring bondage, but abiding in Christ’s love and acceptance brings freedom.
• “Healthy relationships encourage individuality rather than conformity…”

I have read six chapters, and this list of truths is by no means exhausted. Further chapters include:

• The Blame Game
• God’s Answer: Propitiation
• Shame
• God’s Answer: Regeneration
• Agent of Change
• Guilt Versus Conviction
• The Trip In

After I finish this book, I hope to further challenge myself with The Search for Significance Devotional Journal: A 60-day Journey to Discovering Your True Worth. It’s not always easy for us to search into our hearts and be honest with ourselves, but as Robert S. McGee writes, “The Lord desires truth and honesty at the deepest level and wants us to experience His love, forgiveness, and power in all areas of our lives.”

It’s an ongoing process of discovery, and I still sometimes feel so worthless and unlovable. I have to continually remind myself that those negative voices are not true. I have to purposely focus on what God says is true. What is true? “God is love.” (I John 4:16) What people have said or done to us does not define us, no matter how deeply it has rooted itself into our hearts. God does care, and we are worth loving.