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.