Use your imagination with me for a moment.  I'm holding a $100 bill.  If I offered you this $100, would you take it?  Of course!  You wouldn’t think twice.  Now imagine that I crumple up that nice $100 bill and crush it into a little wad.  Would you still want it?  OK, now I'm throwing the wadded up bill against the wall and stomping on it with my foot.  Would you still take it?  It's been beaten up, crushed, stomped on…would you still take it?

Of course you would!  You’d be insane not to!  Why?  Because no matter how abused and beat up it is, it's still worth just as much…and SO ARE YOU!

I’m sure that some of you can relate to the feeling of that $100 bill.  I sure can.  You feel beaten up, mishandled, treated badly.  You've been crushed and you've been trampled on.  And at some point, you will find your enemy, the Devil, filling your head with lies about who you are and what your worth is – such as “life is too much”, “everyone is against me”, “I can’t take any more” and “even God Himself doesn’t care”.

Here’s the truth: you're just like my beat up $100 bill.  No matter what’s happened or what you’ve done or what’s been done to you…you’re still just as valuable.  You're still precious because neither you nor anyone else gave you your worth – God did.  So no one can take it away except Him.

And how does God view you?  You are the crowning achievement of God’s creation, created in His image and given life by His Spirit.  God made you as a reflection of Himself and poured His Spirit into you.  The Bible says “we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works” [Ephesians 2:10].  You are God's one-of-a-kind masterpiece.  There’ll never be another you.  If you don't believe it, look at your fingerprints.

What you believe will affect your life in more ways than you realize.  Stop listening to the lies and start hearing God’s Truth.  You were made by an everlasting God to live an everlasting and supernatural life – a life of power, victory and glory.  You weren’t made to live in despair or defeat.  It’s time to reject the lies and embrace God’s everlasting Truth.  YOU HAVE INFINITE VALUE!

If you’re ever feeling down, the best place to go is to God’s Word – the Bible.  That’s the only place that you’ll find Truth.  The devil is the “prince of this world” and if you spend enough time in his world, you’ll get depressed.  Our only hope is the Eternal Word of God.  Stay close to your Bible and let the words of Scripture lift up your soul.

“Why, my soul, are you downcast?  Why so disturbed within me?  Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”  Psalm 42:5

Our hope is not in things – that all my problems would be solved, or that all my troubles would suddenly disappear.  Our hope is not in people – that they’d realize the hurt they are causing me and stop it, or that I’d find someone to swoop in and bring me joy.  Our hope is not in money or government or jobs or anything like that.  Those are all buckets with holes in the bottom – as soon as you put your hope in them, they quickly let you down.  They can’t do any better.

Our hope is in God.  Or better…MY HOPE IS IN GOD!  Only He can deliver and only He can give me joy and peace in the midst of whatever life is throwing at me.  Put your hope in God and trust in Him.  Turn your eyes toward Him and nothing else.  Look to God to pull you out of the pit and trust that He is more than able to do so.

Remember, like that $100 bill, you have infinite worth.  But it’s only when you hope in God that you’ll discover what that worth truly is.

Discussion:  What does it mean to you to “hope in God”?