Monday, October 28, 2013

you're not good enough

The enemy has gotten a lie stuck in my head

A lie that seems to be chasing me around every corner lately


A lie that steals my joy and cripples my ability to pursue my dreams


A lie that most of the time I'm not quite sure is a lie


"I'm not good enough"


It repeats itself in my head regularly. Every mistake. Every choice. Everyday.


And I fight and I fight and I fight to prove Satan wrong.

"I am good enough!" I tell myself.


I work harder. I try harder. I struggle longer.


And yet.. I continue to  F A I L . 


But I've finally realized that it isn't a lie


I'm not good enough. What a relief. I'm not good enough


The culture keeps telling me to believe in myself. Be confident in who I am. And never let anyone tell me that I'm not good enough 


But our culture is wrong again. Is anyone really surprised by that? 


I'm not good enough 


I need Jesus. 


I need G R A C E .


Praise God for He is good enough. And He loves me regardless of my mess


But when I tell myself over and over again that I am good enough, I ignore my need for grace and my need for Jesus


I keep finding my worth in how much I love Jesus and not how much He loves me


I keep finding my value in how much I do for the Kingdom instead of how much Jesus did for me


And finally here I am. Learning that God will not let us ignore grace for long. 


Eventually we will all realize how desperately we need it. 


My worth cannot come from how good I am. It cannot come from how much I love Jesus, how much spiritual fruit I bear,or how many things in my life I get right according to what we learn in church. 


And I cannot keep trying to earn the favor of God or man by being good enough. 


Because it's not going to happen and because God has already given me good things and will continue to work for my good regardless of how good I am


Because grace isn't just about not getting what we deserve, it's about getting what we don't deserve. 


If I was good enough, I would deserve it. 


But I'm not and I don't and that is what makes it grace. 


So find freedom in admitting that you aren't good enough and you never will be.  


And then find joy in the good news:


Because you aren't good enough, you don't deserve anything but God loves you anyway. He wants to save you from the sin that makes you feel empty and He wants to have a relationship with you and  bless you with good things. 


That's grace people.


So glorify God because He deserves all of the praise.