Feeling inadequate

Have you ever felt like you lacked too much to serve God? 

Not enough ability. Not enough wisdom. Not enough love. Not enough holiness.

If you have, you’re not alone.

Gideon was not brave enough to stand up for his faith publicly (Judg 6:25-27). 

Moses and Jeremiah told God they were not eloquent enough to be God’s prophets (Ex 3:10; Jer 1:6).

Isaiah recognised he was not holy enough to stand before God (Isa 6:5).

How glorious God’s holy ministry is! These servants of our God could not help but see their lack magnified in contrast to it.

Can we be enough to serve God?

And indeed, to fulfil our ministry can seem onerous and daunting.

We may think, who am I, with my brokenness and flaws, to serve God?

Or perhaps, looking around at our church’s believers, all we see is our insufficient manpower, our lacking skillsets, our struggling faiths.

Paul too, asks rhetorically, “And who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Cor 2:16). 

Your sufficiency is from God

Yet because of God, we are enough: 

“Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Cor 3:5-6 ESV). 

As we preach, we can be confident, not by our talents, but by His Spirit. 

It is His glorious ministry that transforms lives, His Spirit that gives freedom. 

Even if people’s hearts are veiled or hardened, Christ can do what we cannot; He can free them from spiritual blindness (2 Cor 3:15-16).

What to do instead

Rather than indulge in self-pity for your weaknesses, actively grow in holiness and prepare yourself with God’s word (2 Tim 4:2). Submit to the Holy Spirit and let Him transform you into God’s glory (2 Cor 3:18). Remember, the Spirit gives life even to we who serve Him!

Then find hope and confidence as you preach Jesus.

With God, you are enough.