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When You Feel You're Not Enough
Whatever positive characteristic we feel we are not, God is. Whatever we need, God is. He is the God who fills in our gaps; He is I AM who fills in our blanks.
.
When we
say, “I’m not strong enough,” God says, “I AM.” When we say, “I’m not smart enough,”
God says, “I
AM.” When
we say, “I’m not good enough,” God says, “I AM.”
.
.
“But he said to me,
‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that
Christ’s power may rest on me.” - 2
Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)
Just 6 years old, I’d
skipped off to school with a new box of crayons, a Swiss polka-dotted dress,
and fresh hope that I would be smart.
But first grade only
confirmed my greatest fear: I was “not enough.”
We lined up our miniature
wooden chairs in a row like a choo-choo train.
The teacher held up a
spelling flashcard for us to identify the word. If we missed the word, we had
to go to the caboose.
I spent most of the first
grade in the caboose. I just couldn’t spell. For some reason, I especially had
trouble with the word the.
I’ll help her, my
teacher must have thought. She made me a nametag that read t-h-e, and
I had to wear it for two weeks.
Students
came up to me and asked, “Why are you
wearing that tag?”
“Is your name ‘The’?”
“What’s wrong with you?”
Eventually, I learned how
to spell the, but that’s not all I learned.
Moses was also someone
who felt he wasn’t good enough.
When God spoke through a
burning bush and called Moses to lead His people out of Egyptian bondage, he
had a big case of the “not-good-enoughs.”
That’s when he had a
one-sided argument with God.
Moses told God he was the
wrong man for the job. He wasn’t brave enough, strong enough, smart enough,
eloquent enough, charismatic enough or confident enough.
At one
point, Moses asked God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to
them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is
his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
And God
replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the
Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you’” (Exodus
3:13-14, NIV).
Moses was 80 years old
when he argued with God.
But even the weakest
knees in the hands of I AM can become a mighty force to be reckoned with.
I’ll go out on a limb and
say that you, too, have likely struggled with feelings of inferiority, insecurity
and inadequacy.
And the
underlying statement feeding the sense of worthlessness is “I’m not __________ enough.”
You can fill in the blank
with a number of qualities. False beliefs such as …
I’m not strong enough.
I’m not experienced enough.
I’m not talented enough.
I’m not brave enough.
I’m not pretty enough.
But here’s what we need
to remember: Whatever positive characteristic we feel we are not, God is.
Whatever we need, God is.
He is the God who fills
in our gaps; He is I AM who fills in our blanks.
When we
say, “I’m not strong enough,” God
says, “I AM.”
When we
say, “I’m not smart enough,” God says, “I AM.”
When we
say, “I’m not good enough,” God says, “I AM.”
We’ll get out of the
caboose and sit up front with the Engineer.
Want to know something
amazing? One of my greatest weaknesses as a child was spelling words.
And now that is what God
has called me to do today … write with words.
I stand
with Paul who lamented about his weakness: “But he [God] said to
me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect
in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my
weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2
Corinthians 12:9).
That’s what happens when
we allow God to fill in our blanks. He turns what we perceive as our greatest
weakness into our greatest strength.
What is God calling you
to do today?
Oh friend, because of
Jesus’ finished work on the cross, and His power in you, you are more than enough!
Don’t forget it.
Heavenly
Father, so many times I feel like I’m just not good enough, smart enough, wise
enough … just not enough, period.
Help me
stop focusing on my self-perceived inadequacies and start focusing on Your
all-sufficient supply.
In Jesus’
Name,
Amen.
TRUTH FOR TODAY:
“I can do all things through him who
strengthens me.” - Philippians 4:13 (ESV)
RELATED RESOURCES:
If you struggle with
feeling like you're just not enough, then Sharon Jaynes’ new release, Enough:
Silencing the Lies that Steal Your Confidence, is just for you. Click here for more details.
REFLECT AND
RESPOND:
Which areas of your life
do you tell yourself that you’re not enough?
What is God telling you
about your true abilities through today’s devotion?
Join the conversation to add a prayer for you or a friend to recognize you’re enough.
Sharon Jaynes served as vice
president and radio co-host for Proverbs 31 Ministries from 1996-2006. She is a
best-selling author of 24 books and Bible studies, including Enough:
Silencing the Lies that Steal Your Confidence, Praying for Your Husband from
Head to Toe: A Daily Guide to Scripture-Based Prayer, Take Hold of the Faith
You Long For: Let Go-Move Forward-Live Bold, and her latest
release--Lovestruck: Discovering God's Design for Romance, Marriage, and Sexual
Intimacy from the Song of Solomon.
Sharon has been featured on several radio
and television programs such as Focus on the Family, Family Life Today,
Revive Our Hearts, and The 700 Club. But what she loves most is speaking
to women face-to-face at women's conferences and events. Her passion is
encouraging and empowering women to walk in courage and confidence as they
grasp their true identity as a child of God and co-heir with Christ. She’s a
storyteller who loves weaving biblical principles and powerful stories to help
the Bible come alive. Sharon and her husband Steve have been married 39 years.
They have one son, Steven, who is married to someone Sharon says is the
sweetest girl ever, Emily. They live 767.5 miles away (yes, she’s counted
them).
Proverbs 31 Ministries is a non-denominational, non-profit Christian ministry that seeks to lead women into a personal relationship with Christ, with Proverbs 31:10-31 as a guide.
https://www.proverbs31.org/read/devotions/full-post/2018/04/02/when-you-feel-youre-not-enough
You might also like:
More Than
Enough
Words
and Music by Robert Gay.
CLICK HERE
. . . to view complete playlist . . .
https://puricarechronicles.blogspot.com/2018/05/more-than-enough-jehovah-jireh-my.html
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