Increasingly I see 'inspirational' slogans appearing to encourage those who feel, lost, weak and inadequate. One of them is 'You Are Enough'. This sounds good, and self talk is important and helpful. It might help for a little while, but unless it is founded in truth, it will fail us, because truth is the only reliable foundation for an authentic life.
'What is truth?' is a question that Pontius Pilate put to Jesus (John 18:38), and it's a good one to ask ourselves. What is truth? Today the world tells us that we each have 'our own truth'. But how can that be? If your truth is different from my truth, then what is THE truth? Yours or mine? Surely we can't both be right! How many truths can there be, and what does it have to do with the question this blog post asks, 'are you enough?'
Jesus gives us the answer in John 14:6. He said, 'I am the way, THE TRUTH, and the life...... The psalmist wrote in Psalm 119:160 'The entirety of your Word is truth...'. The word of God, the Bible is the only reliable source of truth, and unless 'my truth' is founded in its truth, it is not THE truth. If it's not THE truth, then it must be a lie.....of some sort. Lies lead us to believe that something is true when it is not, and if we base our life on a lie we set ourselves up for failure, disappointment and discouragement which can lead to hopelessness.
What sparked this train of thought for me this morning, was my Bible reading in Matthew 5 where Jesus is beginning what is called 'The Sermon on the Mount'. He said, 'Blessed (happy) are the poor in spirit...' (vs 3), and what that says to me is that the ones who KNOW they are NOT enough are the happy ones. Why? Because they are the ones who will call out to Jesus for help. The truth is that without a faith in God, and in HIS truth (embodied in Jesus' teaching), we are doomed to live a life that is not enough. A life that has as its foundation just sand, that when the storms of life come, will not have anything to hold it firm. When we have faith in our great and mighty, unchanging God who created us and knows our innermost thoughts, our foundation will be strong. Check out Psalm 139!
THE truth is that we are marred, sinful people who need to be reunited through faith with a pure, holy and righteous God. A God who sent his son, Jesus Christ to teach the truth, and die for the truth that we might be made good enough to be enough. If we have Christ as our foundation we really WILL be enough.
PRAYER: Oh God, forgive me for thinking that I am enough without you. Help me to find your truth as the foundation of my life. Help me to stop believing the lie that on my own I am enough. Help me to humble my heart and believe and grow in your truth. Amen
