Enough
You are enough.
Right now.
You have all you need and more.
You have all you need to pour Christ's light into other's lives.
Even right now.
If you're anything like me, then you can find yourself burning with desire to further God's kingdom only to turn around and say, "I can't. Not today."
On one hand, we say that we surrender our lives to Christ, for Him to use us and send us wherever He wills, and then on the other hand say to ourselves two of the most crippling words in the English text: "I can't."
Why?
I think it is because of two reasons. One is because we are too insecure and not confident in the gifts and talents we have. And the other, and I think the much more common one is, we are looking inside ourselves alone.
You see, both of these reasons have a common thought process. We are looking to ourselves. As a Christian, we know that "every good and perfect gift comes from above," (James 1:17) and that we are in Him and He is in us (Jn. 14:20). So with both reasons, He is in us. It is, in fact, His power that equips us to do His work! Now I could drop the mic onto all of our hearts and stop there, but I want to look with you into the hearts of those God used to do His work.
Ruth, Moses, David, Jonah, Rahab, and Paul are among the many people who God used to do something to help someone for His glory. If you know the stories of these people well, then you know that they did some not so good things. Moses killed a man. David had an affair. Paul persecuted Christians for a living. Rahab was a prostitute. Jonah ran away from God. But God still used them.
God used them because He knew a secret that I wish you and I could grasp. It was in their weakness that His power could be shown. If you look at Paul's conversion from Saul to Paul, we see one of the most radical transformations throughout Scripture. The one who was chief of persecuting Christians, turned out to be one of the most influential leaders for all Christians, everywhere.
Only God has that kind of power.
My point in saying all of this is, you and I can't rely on ourselves. Because we are not enough...on our own. We simply can't do it without God. The Bible says that apart from Him, we can do nothing (Jn. 15:5). But the most wonderful and glorious words that we could possibly ever live by are found in Philippians 4:13:
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
I want you to hear this if you don't hear anything else from this post:
You have all you need and more because you have Living Water in you.
You can't wait until you get that job, or until you get over your depression, or until your family situation gets better to share His love.
Jesus wants you to follow Him now.
What would it have looked like if when Jesus called Peter to come and follow Him, Peter said, "Okay, I'm coming, just give me a minute! So, I really want to follow You Jesus, but first I have to wait until I get my life figured out. I have to wait until this dispute with my family settles. Once things get fixed, You're the first person I will go to!"
I think this is the mindset of many that want to follow Jesus but simply feel like they can't because they're not ready.
Have you ever heard someone say, "God will never forgive me. I've done too many wrong things"? When this oh so common response to the gospel is spoken, I just want to wrap those people in my arms with all the love that I can and share with them the beauty of God's grace.
Jesus wants you to follow Him now, He wants to teach you and show you how to be His disciple.
You see, we cannot wait until... fill in the blank. There is a lost and dying world in need of a Savior. In need of people who are willing to take up their crosses and learn from their King. All it takes from us is a willing heart. A heart that's willing to repent. A heart that's willing to follow Scripture, even when it's hard. A heart that's willing to learn from God and a heart that's ready to follow Him into the ends of the earth.
Instead of looking at yourself and all your setbacks or qualifications, I encourage you sister, brother, and friend, to look into the eyes of the One who does impossible things. Look into the eyes of beautiful perfection and allow Him to change and equip and use you. Don't wait until you figure it all out. Ask Him to help you in your struggles and recognize with me, that in your weakness, His power is greatest. And in your struggles, serve Him. In your weaknesses, live for Him, share His love.
But how?
Say yes.
Say yes to following Him and His Word.
Say yes in the little things and big things that He calls you to do.
If you, like me, are tired of having this little light of mine in your heart and not having the courage or the mindset to share it, I encourage you to remember this simple truth: In His strength, you can do all things.
Jesus said "Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men." He didn't say, "Follow me because you already know how to fish for men!" But the beautiful thing is, our love for God and our following Him doesn't stop when we know how to fish for men or when we learn how to do what He calls us to do. Once you follow Jesus, you follow Him forever. We follow Him to the ends of the earth and into the glory of heaven where we will sing His praises forevermore!
"Follow Me, and I will make you, I will help you, and I will teach you."
In His strength, you can do all things.
~Ash
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