Do you ever feel like you’re not good enough? I do, too. All of the time, actually. It’s one of the things I struggle with the most. Feelings of unworthiness and inadequacy. Striving to live up to some impossible standard of perfection. Feeling like I’m working so hard each day only to get nowhere fast. Just this morning I told Jonathan that I’m not a “good enough” mommy because the pants Lydia wanted to wear were in the dirty clothes. (Yes, I know how ridiculous that sounds, but surely I’m not the only one that feels this way?)
This is where you might expect me to say “you ARE worthy, friend! You ARE enough. You be you and you’ll do big things. Work hard and you’ll achieve your wildest dreams.” That’s the message we hear so much these days, right? That’s the message that sells thousands of books. That’s the message that goes viral on social media. Because of our self-centered nature, that’s the message we want to believe. We want to hear that If we try hard enough, we can do it all on our own and we can do it well.
I’m sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but that’s not what I’m going to say in this post. Whomp whomp, I know, but I see something very wrong about the above message. I believe that it’s leaving something (or someone) very important out of this popular “recipe for success.”
So here’s the truth according to scripture. On my own, I’m not good enough and neither are you. We’re not worthy of a single thing. We are born into sin. Romans 3:23 says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. This sin is not something that we have to learn, but is woven into the very fabric of who we are from the moment of conception. Because of this, we deserve death and death alone.
But God. 2000 years ago, God came to the earth wrapped in flesh. Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus. Born in the most humble way imaginable. He lived the perfect life, not stained by the curse of sin. He then did what we can't do and paid for our sins by spilling his perfect blood on the cross. He did this so we CAN be good enough. So we CAN be worthy.
If we read more of that passage in Romans 3, verses 21-26 say "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
If we have faith in Jesus, we are covered by His blood and it’s HIS righteousness God sees, not ours. Praise The Lord, Hallelujah because as we have already established, we have zero righteousness of our own.
My challenge for all of us today? If you have trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, live in the righteousness that has been given to you. Walk in the freedom of knowing that because of Jesus, and because of Him alone, you are worthy in the eyes of The Lord. Live in the confidence of knowing that you are indeed good enough because it’s not up to your own efforts. Be thankful for His grace because we certainly don’t deserve a single ounce of it. Be thankful that it’s not up to our own efforts because if it was, we would certainly fail. Be thankful for the good news of the gospel that began when a tiny babe was born in a stable and placed in a manger, many years ago.
コメント