You Are Enough - Part 3

YOU ARE ENOUGH

Forward: Have you ever struggled with not feeling good enough? Do you struggle with self-worth and feel like your life experiences and struggles have left you feeling alone and like you don’t matter? Take heart. God does not make useless things. No matter who you are, how messy your life is or what trials you’ve been through – YOU are loved by God and you alone are enough for Him.

Day 3:

You are enough.

Have you ever doubted that you are enough? Have people, your status in life, or experiences made you feel that way? 

It is a battle that many people fight every day.

Sometimes things happen or people can make us feel like we are not good enough for them or good enough to get the job done. This can leave us feeling empty, alone and like we just can’t measure up. It’s a horrible feeling that can make us wonder if we are lacking or missing something and it can make us feel desperation, sadness and even guilt.

But take heart! 

YOU are enough and you always have been! 

We live in a very broken world. 

There are people in our lives that are hurt and their best defense is to hurt other people and they do this by making others feel small and little and not worth it.

First, you need to know that you are not alone. 

There are more people feeling this way than you could imagine. We need to use a different measuring stick on whether or not we are good enough. 

You are not good enough because of your job or your marriage status or because of what anyone thinks or says.

The measure of you being good enough solely comes from God and nobody else, and let me tell you, He not only thinks you are, but he KNOWS YOU ARE! 

The bible tells us that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made”. 

The bible also says that “God knew us before we were even formed in the womb”.

God does not make useless things my friend. God made YOU and that is what makes you enough!

Prayer: Lord, help me to see past what others say and know that I am enough simply because I am yours. Give me the wisdom to know the difference and to see my worth through you. Thank you for creating me and loving me, Lord. I pray these things in your name, Amen.

Verses:

Genesis 1:27  

So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

Jeremiah 1:5 

 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew^[a] you,
    before you were born I set you apart;
    I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Ephesians 2:10  

 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Psalm 139:13-16  

For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.

 

You Are Enough - Part 2

YOU ARE ENOUGH

Forward: Have you ever struggled with not feeling good enough? Do you struggle with self-worth and feel like your life experiences and struggles have left you feeling alone and like you don’t matter? Take heart. God does not make useless things. No matter who you are, how messy your life is or what trials you’ve been through – YOU are loved by God and you alone are enough for Him.

Day 2:

Broken crayons still color.

Are you broken? 

Have you been through hardships or have you had relationships that have left you feeling broken and empty? Sometimes divorce, job loss, or devastating experiences can leave us…. broken. 

Sometimes we may feel like we can’t go on or we feel that we have been broken into so many pieces that there is no way we can be put back together and we feel useless.

I am here to tell you that broken crayons still color.

Just because a crayon breaks in half doesn’t deem it useless. A blue broken crayon will still color blue. A green broken crayon will still color green. Not white. Not pink. But green. 

Your brokenness; your broken pieces will still color, even if you are hurt so bad and even if you don’t think you can muster the strength to go on. 

Every piece of you, whether broken or not, has value. The experiences you have been through in life, although painful and hard, don’t decrease what you have to offer. 

The bible tells us, “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

You and your brokenness have worth. 

God is with you and can take your brokenness and use it for good. Others are broken, too, and your experiences can give hope and strength to many others.

Choose today to pick up your broken pieces and splatter paint this world with the colors of you. The world needs it. The world needs YOU.

Prayer: Lord, give me the courage to pick up the pieces of my brokenness and use them for good. Help me to see past the hurt and pain and to use my experiences to give hope to others. Help me to remember that broken crayons still color. In your name I pray, Amen.

Verses:

John 16:33  

 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Isaiah 41:10  

 So do not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 43:2  

 When you pass through the waters,
    I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
    they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
    you will not be burned;
    the flames will not set you ablaze.

2 Corinthians 1:4 

  ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
 

 

You Are Enough - Part 1

YOU ARE ENOUGH

Forward: Have you ever struggled with not feeling good enough? Do you struggle with self-worth and feel like your life experiences and struggles have left you feeling alone and like you don’t matter? Take heart. God does not make useless things. No matter who you are, how messy your life is or what trials you’ve been through – YOU are loved by God and you alone are enough for Him.

 Day 1:

Your mess does not define you.

Life can be messy. We can be messy. Sometimes it’s our own decisions that create our mess and sometimes our mess wasn’t even created by us. Either way, your mess, no matter how it got there, does not define you.

What defines you is whose you are and who you belong to.

You belong to God. 

You are His.

The bible tells story after story of God using messy people to accomplish great things. As a matter of fact, Jesus’ disciples were all people with different backgrounds, different “messes” and they were a part of his inner circle and he used them in great ways.

There is one particular person in the bible that was messy but he went on to do great things for God. His name was Saul.

Saul was known for persecuting Christians. He went from house to house and would drag off both men and women and throw them in prison and he condemned people to death. He was mean and he was ruthless. 

Saul was messy. 

But, God showed us through the life of Saul (later renamed Paul), that our mess doesn’t define us. 

Paul went on to write over a dozen books of the New Testament, traveling extensively and planting churches wherever he went. Paul was messy but God used his mess to change the world.

If you think your mess defines you, think again. God can and will use YOU to do great things. 

Don’t define yourself by your mess. Paul didn’t and neither should you.

Let God define who you are. You are his. Mess and all and God loves you!

Prayer: Lord, help me to see beyond my mess. Help me to see myself how you see me and remind me daily that my circumstances don’t define me. You do. Thank you for loving me and for using me right where I am. Help me to be a Paul in a messy world and thank you for seeing me different than I see myself. I give my mess to you and, starting right now, will let you define me. In your name I pray, Amen.

Verses:

Acts 9:1-19 

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest ² and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. ³ As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

⁵ “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. ⁶ “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

⁷ The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. ⁸ Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. ⁹ For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

¹⁰ In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”

“Yes, Lord,” he answered.

¹¹ The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. ¹² In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

¹³ “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”

¹⁵ But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. ¹⁶ I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
¹⁷ Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸ Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, ¹⁹ and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

Acts 9:20-21  

And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” ²¹ And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?”

Galatians 1:13-17  

 For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. ¹⁴ I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. ¹⁵ But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased ¹⁶ to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. ¹⁷ I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus.