Am I Enough? 5 Truths that Fight Lies and Bring Freedom

I’m not sure I even stop to ask the question all that much.  I just give the answer, repeat the lie – there is not enough of me, I can’t keep up, it’s just too much.

Many days I master it and life seems to be in synch.  The house is tidy and so is life, but the lie still lurks below, just waiting to re-surface at the proper moment.

I feel torn and fragmented, striving and juggling – fun mom, serving spouse, brilliant home educator, and faithful servant.  Keep a clean home, make a lovely meal, train the children well, and do a cool science project.  Lead others, be a good friend, co-ordinate the co-op seamlessly, serve in the church and stay in good shape.  Become a better writer, a better wife and for heaven’s sake, learn to bake a decent pie.

Your list may look different, but really it’s all the same. Expectations heaped upon expectations, like a literal Jenga game.  Always with an eye on the tower being built next to us and this lie.  A lie that seeps into the seams. Like a snake it slithers into the joints and isn’t really exposed until part of the tower crumbles.

Most days I keep peddling, keep stepping. But on days when it feels like I’m never quite getting there, on days when the laundry piles up and the mail stacks up and I lose my patience with the kids I love and feel like a mama screw up, I sink.  I repeat the lie that lingers just under the surface.  You are horrible at this.  Who do you think you are?  What made you think you could do this well, anyway?

I have a feeling I’m not alone here.

I spoke with a mama the other day who would like to lose a few pounds, the baby weight came on and didn’t fade like she had hoped, like it does for all the celebrities in the magazines.  She said she is okay with it most days, when she is at home, but when she is with her friends, who are all a size or two smaller, it bothers her.  I hear her words, her struggle, but I see the lie beginning to surface – am I enough?

I have a friend who is doing life brave.  She is following God hard and that looks a whole lot different than the way she was raised.  And most days she is stepping; with fear and trembling she keep listening, keeps stepping.  But some days she grows faint and worries about how weird she looks to her family, to the rest of the world.  I hear her words, her struggle, but I see her look at her family and give way to the lie – am I enough?

Some days we know we are, we hear truth, read truth and believe it.  But other days we struggle.  We crumble under the weight of our calling, under the weight of obligation, under the weight of comparison and expectation.  This is struggle is real.  So where do we go from here?

 

2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us we are to demolish arguments against Truth and we are to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.  I love that strong action verb – demolish.  We weren’t called to think happy thoughts, friends, we are called to take captive and demolish.  You know what that tells me?  God knew we were going to go here.  He knew we would struggle with our thoughts; that we would sometimes fall prey to lies that lead us astray.  That is why, through Paul, He told us to take our thoughts and re-align them with Him.

Taking thoughts captive sounds like action, friends.  It sounds like offense more than defense.  And any good offense comes with a game plan.  Here is my game plan for captivity – 5 truth to remember when we are fighting the lie.

 

1. I am chosen.  The red letters of John 15:16 tell us “you did not choose Me, but I chose you” and Ephesians 2:10 tells us that we are His workmanship, created by Him to good works.  We are His and we got work to do, friends!

 

2.  I am loved.  Jeremiah 31:3 states I have loved you with an everlasting love and may we not forget John 3:16.  His love was displayed in the ultimate act of sacrifice, but didn’t end there.  Sometimes we trivialize these verses as we rattle them off from memory.  But they speak life.  This is the truth we need to hear.

 

3.  I am not alone.  I will never leave you nor forsake you. Hebrews 13:5 A simple promise.  Believe it.

 

4. I am forgiven.  We mess up and fall short on a daily basis but Romans 8:1 tells us there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  We were never meant to park there, to sulk in our mess.  We were meant to give it to Him and be freed from it.

 

5. I am enough.  Zephaniah 3:17 says The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.  He delights in us!  And we need to charge on with like Paul “being confident of this very thing, that He who has began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6

 

If you are His, I promise, friends, you are enough. Lay your expectations down before Him, have bold faith that He will empower you to fulfill the calling He has placed on your life.  Dwell on truth, on His promises so your mind and heart are prepared to demolish that lie when it tries to resurface.

This life is tough at times, friends, and our calling is great.  There is nothing wrong with wanting to serve well, and mother well, to steward our bodies well, or make our parents proud.   But we are called to bring it all under the Lordship of Christ.  We are created to be refined by our calling, not defined by it.  You are His, and that is enough.

 

This post is being shared at Grace and Truth.