What does God value in us?

Why is humility so important? 
What best brings it about? 
Is there any connection between our value, as bearers of God's image, and humility?
We will start by looking at humility and then how this is connected to being like God - Jesus i.e. in His image.

There are at least three foundational truths to grasp for humility to increase in us...
1. We must know all that we are and have comes from God - particularly our being in His image.

2. We must know God values us regardless of our failures - in fact He uses them to actually advance us and increase our union with Him.
3. We must know God values us regardless of what anyone else thinks or says about us.

i.e. we don't need to ¹promote ourselves and derive our sense of value through the praise of others. 
We are already fully and eternally valued and cherished by God. If God is for us who else can ultimately be against us? Hint...nothing and no one! 

What is the basis of God's value of us?

God made us like Himself. It is His image in us that He values. Or it may be more accurate to say he values us because we are in his image.

But why does God value his imagine in us? What is it about His image He finds so attractive and appealing even though we are so broken, ugly, full of doubts and distrust of Him? (...or maybe in part indirectly because of these - i.e. because of the humbling our failures help develop in us). 
Christ also being in the image of God may be an important first clue to our value and humility. Let's take a closer look.
God knows and sees fully what we are becoming and will be that day we are finally and fully glorified and perfectly united with Him in ²eternity (because we are in his image we will be more ³like God on that day than we can now see or can even imagine).
God no longer holds our failures against us - Christ already ⁴legally fully addressed them. So in Christ there is now no barrier between God and us on his side of the relationship. He fully and perfectly receives and embraces us in His love.  He also knows where our struggles and failures are ultimately taking us. Since our rebellious distrust of God is no longer a legal issue, if we are in Christ, He now focuses on how to maximize the use of our failures and struggles ⁴practically i.e. how they are used to humble us - if we let them - and how they advance our increased participation in Him in all His infinite glory both now but particularly in eternity.

God is thrilled and delighted in us - because He is thrilled and delighted in Himself and His Son first and how we are becoming more like His Son through our struggles - and who we will finally be that day when we are perfectly united with Him and fully glorified alongside Him the moment we step into eternity. Because, at that time, we will be completely and perfectly restored and united with Him in the same way His Son is - and has been since his resurrection - the Son who is already and fully in the perfect image of the Father.

We will be like the prodigal son that his father lost, ⁵who returned. For now God eagerly watches and awaits our perfect restoration and union with him (as the prodigal sons father did). At that time God will throw His arms around us, kiss our neck and throw a feast for us, ⁹celebrating our complete union and exaltation with Him forevermore. 

Like Christ, His only eternally begotten Son, we too are his sons and daughters (even though Christ is the only begotten Son, we like Christ, are the sons and daughters of the all glorious Creator God). 
Because of what Christ did for us, He earned the status of being the first born of many "brothers" i.e. of additional sons and daughters. 
He was also the first (first fruits) to go through death and come out the other side fully glorified and victorious. First suggests there are others like Him to follow. As God's sons and daughters in Christ we are next for we too have died in Christ and will also be resurrected in glory. 
Imagine the delight the Father has had in His Son from all eternity past and the excitement he felt in anticipation of His return to Heaven to be by His side again. The Father has this same ⁶eager anticipation and excitement for being with us and our being united with Him. He values us as His sons and daughters in the same way He values Jesus, His eternal, only begotten Son.
And what a day of joy and celebration that will be for God and us! The greatness of our capacity to be like God (Christ) and enjoy and reflect him throughout eternity will only be 2nd to Christ Himself! 
And the greater our ⁷humbling in this life - whether self imposed (through our self denial and sacrificial love of others) or brought about externally through painful circumstances - the more fully we will experience, engage in and enjoy the Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit throughout eternity. At that time we will fully join in the celebration and divine dance of glory and love between the Father and Son in, through, and by the Spirit. The greater our humility and trust the more we enter into and partake of the only true God.

So never shy away from discipline, obedience to the Father, struggle, disappointment, set backs, suffering but embrace them - in the same way Christ did. 
God Himself is our reward and struggle is often the primary means by which we draw nearer to Him. The ⁸more you partake of challenges of any kind and let them humble you, the more fully you will be able to engage and participate in God in all His wonder, majesty, beauty and glory throughout eternity.
So count it all joy when you go through various struggles. Fix your eyes on Jesus and get ready for His celebration of you and your joining Him in the greatest party you will ever have or experience. A celebration that never ends! This is the essence of heaven.
For a discussion on what makes Christ unique as the only begotten son click here. 

For a discussion on the humility of God click here
For a discussion on why evil exists click here.

For a discussion on if we are accountable for Adams rebellion click here.
_______________________________

¹Self promotion - exaltation - is at the heart of pride and pride is the opposite of humility. We seek to promote ourselves due to God's absence brought about by our rejecting and distrusting God in all His care, love, value, support, advancement and promotion of us. To lay down attempts to advance ourselves and receive the love, care and support of another requires humility and trust (and not just any "other" but the all wise, loving and powerful Creator God). It is acknowledging our dependence on another versus being our own god i.e. being independent. It is the reversal of the spirit of distrust and rebellion displayed by Adam in the beginning.


²We have the short view. God has the long view; to most important view.  

"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient (temporary, fleeting), but the things that are unseen are eternal." 2 Cor 4:16‭-‬18

³The potential of our being like God and fully experiencing Him lies dormant in us. When we rebelled and broke trust with God, we died  spiritually - the spiritual light went out (though the capacity for that light to be turned back on remains). When we turned away from God our full brilliance - glory - went dormant. What was left was a spiritual void - hunger - that we now seek to fill. But due to our rebellious distrust of the only One who can fill it, we seek this outside of and apart from God, not in and through Him.

Now we treat God as our enemy and the one that blocks us from obtaining fullness of life - or so we think.  But is this true? Do we really think he's our enemy? How do we know? How can we tell?
If we get angry, when our plans to gain life outside of God are thwarted, we are ultimately shaking our fist at God. We believe He's the cause of our pain when it is His absence due to our distrust of Him that is the cause.
Physical death is evidence and the outward manifestation of our internal spiritual death that occurred at the rebellion of Adam and Eve. In order for our true spiritual brilliance to be completely manifested in and through us again we have to be fully united with - plugged into - the source of life and love - the all glorious, brilliant and beautiful God who is our Creator and the Source of us and all things. God alone is our true life source - the source of glory and brilliance...and of our glory and our brilliance - we are not. 
Being reunited with God - the source of life, love and all things - only occurs in and through placing our trust in Christs efforts on our behalf, not our own.

⁴Our rebellious unbelief (sin) is addressed in 2 ways

Legally - objectively. Legally our rebellion is no longer held against us because of Christ and His bearing the full consequences of it legally i.e. God's condemnation and judgment for our rebellion are removed. Christ bore all of it when He died and came back to life, putting these away from us forever.
Practically - subjectively. As we become more aware of the depth of our rebellion we are humbled and increasingly understand the significance of Christ fully removing the legal consequences of our rebellion and our desperate need for Him.

⁵Due to his son humbling himself because of his failure to make it on his own.

⁶And not the Father only but the Son also eagerly anticipated His return as well.
⁷Challenges will either make us distrusting and bitter or better. It is our choice.
⁸Do not question God's love and the good intentions He has toward you when allowing you to enter into and go through struggles or fiery trails. He is working things in you, you do not yet fully see or understand, to humble you and enable you to be more like his Son so that you can better feast with Him in eternity.

So "count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing..." - Jas 1:2‭-‬5 ⁹If this is the response of a finite and flawed human father, imagine the response of a perfect infinitely love heavenly father. I would say we can't and won't until that day we are looking at Him face to face.


A personal note regarding this post...

I used to dread dying and have always hoped I would die quietly in my sleep but after understanding the truths above I am inclined to desire the most challenging death, so in that time it might humble me further that I might be exalted even more in eternity with God. The closeness of our union with God and extent of our partaking of God in eternity is in proportion to our humility in this present life. 
Don't shy a way from the things that humble you, embrace them. Doing so increases your capacity to experience God's embrace of you - not His actual embrace. That is already perfect in Christ because of His efforts ( not yours) on your behalf.