Sunday, June 9, 2013

No More "Not Enough "

 Life often tells us we are not enough. We can never do enough and will never be enough. This message is heard over and over again. A debilitating and paralyzing statement to hear and one that causes us much damage, my self included.
But I was reminded this morning that God not only has given us an Enough through Jesus; God is guarding our Enough, He fills our heart with His Spirit of enough, he guards our heart with enough, and he credits us with His enough. He loves us because we are now Enough!
 
This was a much needed moment of clarity for me today but as I was reading and praying, many of my friends, family and clients came to mind and I realized, this is most of our stories. Most of us
walk around with a never enough label, a label that brings us down, destroys our hope and causes us to despair. Today, I was reminded that God, because of my status as His, not only thinks I am enough but promises to guard this for me so that nothing can take it away. 
 
Did you hear that? Nothing can take away our enough. Not the critical looks from someone at church that thinks I am not doing enough or the right enough. Not the questions that I cannot answer from someone desperate for a solution. Not even the  worst bully of all, the eyes of the girl in the mirror who tells me you will never be enough because I am not like other people. My Enough is untouchable, not matter what. Today, I want to live like I am enough because God has reminded me I am.
 
I have copied two translations for you to enjoy.. then look up your own!
Have a day where you know God is guarding your enough!
 
1 Peter 1:3-9

A New Life (from the message)

 

3-5 What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.
6-7 I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.
8-9 You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation.

Praise to God for a Living Hope (NIV)

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.