I Am Not ________ Enough

Most of us know what it’s like to feel insecure, like we’re not up to some particular challenge. Maybe you just got hired for a job and now you’re not sure you can do it—and nobody else seems to think so either. Or you have just embarked on some new phase of life—being a mom, going into retirement, living on your own—and you’re not sure you have what it takes to succeed in this new phase. 

Maybe you just feel overwhelmed by life, or, what I like to refer to as “parenthood.” (Sidebar: Every year, I feel like I know less and less about parenting. Before I had kids, I had four great theories on parenting and I taught them to everyone. I preached them, and people took notes on them. Now I have four almost-grown kids and no great sermons on parenting.)

Maybe there’s an assignment you think God has given you, but you’re like, “God, I think you got the wrong address.” In the biography of Rosa Parks, it talks about how she felt compelled to do something about the injustice of the Montgomery bus system, but these voices inside her kept saying, “Who are you? You’re not a leader. Nobody even notices when you’re in the room. You can’t do anything.”

Recently, I read an article about the prevalence of “impostor syndrome” in our culture—the idea that you’re a fraud, totally insufficient for the position you’re in, and soon everyone will find out. People you’d never think have it are consumed by it. Maya Angelou, for instance, said, “Each time I write a book, every time I face that yellow pad, the challenge is so great. I have written eleven books, but each time I think, ‘Uh oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody and they’re going to find me out.’” 

Insecurity is a voice inside you that whispers, “I am not ____________ enough.”

What most often goes into that blank for you? 

I’m not smart enough.
I’m not funny enough.
I’m not pretty enough.
I’m not spiritual enough.
I’m not young enough.
I’m not strong enough.

Here’s the good news: Whenever God initiates his plans, he supplies us with all the power to accomplish his purposes. We see this in Moses’ story when he asked God, “Who am I and how am I sufficient for this task?” It’s the same old problem of insecurity: “I am not enough.” What I find interesting here, though, is that God didn’t respond by affirming something about Moses. He didn’t say, “Oh, Moses, but you actually are enough! Look inside, you’re a diamond in the rough!” He simply said, “I am with you.” In other words, from this point on, it matters less who you are and much more who I am. 

Later on, Moses objects again to God’s choice of him, describing himself as being “slow of speech and tongue,” which scholars say means he may have had a speech impediment. God’s answers become a bit more direct here because Moses’ questions have gone from insecurity to unbelief. Eventually, God says, “Moses, will you shut up about your mouth? Who do you think made man’s mouth? I’ve got way bigger things for you than giving speeches, anyway. I’m going to give you the power to make hail fall from the sky and to turn the Nile to blood. I’ll be the power in all that you will do. I can handle your words.”

Still Moses persists, pleading with God, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else,” and his disbelief cost him dearly. God’s anger was kindled, and God sent Moses’ brother Aaron to speak in his place. Sadly, Aaron turned out to be a pretty unreliable lieutenant. At one point, Aaron led the children of Israel to construct a golden calf in Moses’ absence, and in the book of Numbers, he was publicly critical of Moses. 

This is an important lesson: The great temptation in any divine assignment is to try to supplement the promises of the Spirit by the power of the flesh, to find an “Aaron” that feels more reliable than God’s promise. When God calls you to something, there will come a time of testing where you feel like you can’t do it, and in that moment, you’ll be tempted to try to accomplish by the flesh what can only be done by the Spirit.

Abraham did this with Hagar, remember? God promised to give him and his wife, Sarah, a son in their old age, but Abraham got impatient and he turned to Hagar, his younger house servant, and impregnated her to help God out with his promise. But that union produced Ishmael, and Ishmael and his descendants became a major source of strife to Abraham’s descendants for many years to come. The Apostle Paul even uses Abraham and Hagar as a metaphor in the book of Galatians to make the point: Never try finishing in the flesh what God promises through the Spirit! 

Moses should have already learned this lesson, because he’d seen the problems that doing this stuff in the flesh could cause. From the beginning, when he sensed God wanting him to save Israel, he took matters into his own hands, and that led to a dead Egyptian and Moses wandering in the desert for 40 years.

You might be thinking, “OK, I get it. Do things God’s way and not my way. But practically, what does this look like? I don’t want to try to accomplish something in the flesh, but I also don’t think God wants me to sit around and do nothing. How do I know if I’ve taken something over in the flesh?”

Great question. There are two telltale signs you’ve taken something over in the flesh: 1) you compromise the laws of God, or 2) you lose the peace of God.

First, when you compromise the laws of God, like Abraham and Moses, you might be tempted to get financially stable by cheating on your taxes or overworking and cheating your family. Maybe you’re not happy in your marriage, so you leave to find happiness in another relationship. You compromise the laws of God in an attempt to accomplish the purposes of God. It’s not a shortcut you want to take.

Second, when you lose the peace of God, you start to worry all the time. You carry the weight of the assignment; you have a frenetic sense of panic or desperation. You say, deep in your heart of hearts, “I’ve got to fix this. I’ve got to take care of it.” 

But we don’t have to live that way. I can get up every day knowing that all God invites me to do is join him in what he’s doing. Whether I’m talking about reaching somebody for Jesus, parenting my kids, providing for my family, or producing fruit in my spiritual life—God carries the weight of those things. In all of these, he’s the actor; I just join him. He’s the I AM; I’m the “I’m not,” and that’s why he and I are a match made in heaven. I am a big ball of helpless need; he’s the endless I AM.

Ephesians 2:10 tells us that “God has preordained good works that we should go and walk in them.” “Preordained” means God has already appointed them, and the power to do them is already supplied. I just have to go join God in what he’s doing, because the initiator is also the supplier, and that’s an incredibly peaceful way to live!

Photo Credit: SWN Design

J.D. Greear is the pastor of The Summit Church, in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. He hosts Summit Life, a 30-minute daily radio broadcast and weekly TV program as well as the Ask the Pastor podcast. Pastor J.D. Greear has authored many books, most notably Gospel, Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart, and Gaining by Losing. 
Pastor J.D. completed his Ph.D. in Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Chick-fil-A, serves as a Council member for The Gospel Coalition, and recently served as the 62nd president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Pastor J.D. and his wife Veronica are raising four awesome kids.