There are times when I struggle with whether I am enough. No matter how hard I work, how hard I clean, how much laundry I do, how many meals I prepare, how many steps I walk, how hard I love, how much I pray… it sometimes feels like it isn’t enough. Perhaps it’s my imagination, perhaps it’s social media, perhaps it’s my perfectionist persona… whatever the cause, the empty feeling of not being enough is more than enough to deal with. Am I the only one who feels this way?
Honestly, the feeling of not being enough is exhauuusting, especially when this feeling involves the game of comparisons. When we compare ourselves to others, we assess ourselves against an unknown standard. While we know how our insides feel, we have no idea what someone else is feeling. Melanie Shankle refers to this as measuring our insides to someone else’s outsides. It’s like taking an ACT test (Can you tell my son is preparing for college admissions?) when you studied for a driving test. The odds you will score extremely well on the ACT with your knowledge of driver safety are slim. It’s no wonder we feel like failures… that we are not enough… that we will never measure up.
Perhaps the reason we feel inadequate is because we focus on worldly standards and not on God’s character and promises. We spend so much time looking down when we should spend all our time looking up. Perhaps we struggle with being enough because we don’t trust God enough or haven’t surrendered enough to His will. Perhaps we don’t give Him enough of our time or listen to Him enough. Or… perhaps we are so focused on our lack that we forget about His abundance.
Instead of focusing on our “limited enough”, we need to focus on our God. God, our Heavenly Father, loves us more than enough. Our God who values and accepts us with all our insecurities, shortcomings, failures, and flops cares for us far more than enough. We need to place all our trust and faith in Him, knowing that He is more than enough for all of us. We need to spend enough time in His Word, in prayer, and in His arms to understand His more than enough plan and will for our lives. We must understand that we are enough because He is more than enough.
While we hold our plans for our lives to a worldly standard, God has a standard for us that is out of this world, with an eternal and infinite perspective. God places no boundaries on our purpose. His plan for our potential is infinite because they are written with eternal goals. While we think in terms of enough, God thinks in terms of eternal. While we put up walls to protect us against idyllic, worldly standards, God’s eternal perspective breaks down those walls with shovels of abundance. He chisels, carves, and shapes us with His more than enough wisdom, strength, and love. Our lives with God contain no boundaries… our potential is unlimited and infinite… more than enough. God’s plan for our lives is without walls… so huge that no earthly walls or worldly standards can contain His more than enough will and unique plan for us.
The more we surrender to God’s will and plan, the more we find our enough in Him. When we are completely surrendered to His will, wisdom, and plan we come to a place of total peace and contentment… a place of infinite joy and eternal HOPE. When we reach that place of being enough, we are content with all our flaws and imperfections because our God is more than enough to turn ALL the situations in our lives… our failures and successes, our fears and our dreams, our despair and our HOPE… for our good.
The more we seek God’s eternal standards, the more He increases our capacity to receive His love, understand our identity in Jesus, and share His love with others. When we finally reach the end of all our striving for perfection, we discover that our Heavenly Father has been loving us unconditionally before we were even born. There is no end to God’s love and there is no end for our ability to experience it. God’s love is more than enough, giving us an infinite love and eternal HOPE that never, ever fails.
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