I’m Not Enough

But Jesus Is!

I’m not enough. Does this sound odd to you? For the past decade, this message HAS NOT been accepted or welcome in our culture. And when you read these three words, I’m not enough, you may find yourself shaking your head in disagreement.

But hang with me for a minute because this message is something worth talking about.

The Backstory

In 2014 I started my online business, then dived into an MLM (multi-level marketing) business in 2020. These were both good decisions that I don’t regret. Who doesn’t want to have multiple streams of income? But in taking these steps, I was plummeted into the world of self-help. This wasn’t something I consciously realized. It was simply thrown in with all the entrepreneurship information I read and absorbed to help grow my business and gain a better mindset to accomplish my goals.

My personality lends itself toward consuming information constantly and I was absorbing everything I could on building a business and being a better me to achieve success. You should see the stack of motivational books I acquired! This isn’t necessarily a good thing. As a Christian, I consider myself pretty well-versed in recognizing messages that aren’t true or helpful to my faith. But repetition of lies got the better of me. The self-help messages flashed in front of me over and over. Though I knew they weren’t true, I couldn’t verbalize exactly why they were wrong and continued to let myself buy into self-help doctrine that wasn’t helpful at all.

You Are ENOUGH

One of the messages that troubled me the most was “You are enough.” It paired nicely with “God loves you just the way your are.” I kept thinking, “Am I really enough?” and “Is that what the Bible actually says?” It’s all very tricky. Of course we know that God loves us, despite all our flaws. But does he want me to stay Just the way I am? I don’t think so. Some of the messages from books I read were a little more truthful. There premise was that you’re not enough, but if you follow all the steps in this book, you will be. This is simply not true.

The other problem is that I KNOW I’m not enough. I know there are things I am incapable of achieving without my Father’s help. That includes most everything. I have examples of this throughout my life and so do you. That’s not to say someone can’t accomplish great things without a faith in Jesus, but we know that those accomplishments are empty and fruitless if you aren’t abiding in Christ. That life leaves one feeling like they are never enough because they can never achieve enough of whatever they are chasing.

Made Perfect in Weakness

The message “I am enough” is especially compelling when we are acutely aware of our deficiencies. We want to dismiss our struggles and stay stuck where we are, rather than growing stronger through challenges, hard work and Christ’s help. In 2 Corinthians, Paul talks about the thorn in his side and how he asked for God to remove it three times, but God said to him:

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

2 Corinthians 12:9

This scripture certainly confirms that we are not enough, but with God we are made perfect. In James 1, verses 2-4, James is encouraging us to count it all joy when we face trials, and that if we remain steadfast, our faith will have it’s full effect and we will be “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” This perfection is only possible through our faith in Christ. To say we are “enough” implies we don’t need to do anything to improve ourselves or grow our faith. This is simply not true.

Flawed

The truth is, we all have big flaws. Some are just more obvious to the world and some are a heavy burden to carry. Saying “I’m not enough without Jesus” doesn’t delegitimize your flaws. It means I’m a child of God, made in his image. But, we live in a fallen world so we have flaws.

By admitting “I’m not enough” we are accepting a posture of humility, and demonstrating a desire to be better and grow our faith. This is Biblical.

Jesus does love us as we are, but he doesn’t want us to simply stay as we are. Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 4:

so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 

Ephesians 4:14-15

This only happens when we focus our life and attention on God’s word and instruction for our lives. Paul says it very simply. We grow up and become like Christ. God doesn’t expect perfection, because we can’t achieve it, except through him.

However, he does expect us to strive toward our best self as we seek him first. The world’s view of self does not live up to God’s standard. He doesn’t just want us to be enough, he wants us to be more! When our kids were young, we talked a lot about doing good, better, or best. God wants our best!

Reflecting on the false messages of self-help

I have spent the last year really unpacking the false messages we receive daily, through social media, books and sometimes at church. Just because a quote sounds good and makes you feel good about yourself, doesn’t mean it’s Biblical. Remember, our hearts can deceive us. Can I encourage you to start looking for the lies that are sometime hard to recognize in a world of self-help and self-love? Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing a few more lies that Satan wants us to buy into. In the end, these lies will suck all the joy out of our lives as we shift the focus off of God and onto ourselves. Remember that anything we can’t stop thinking about is an idol, even ourselves.

You are precious in his sight,