I used to think I had it all together. But there came a time when I started feeling like I just wasn’t good enough. It’s easy to blame marriage or other life changes for these feelings, but I realized they had been growing inside me for a long time, fed by years of criticism and self-doubt.
Growing up, I was never confident about how I looked. My peers would often make fun of me, and that hurt. Though there were moments when I felt okay, after getting married, comments about my skin color and weight began to make me feel worthless again. I’d come up with clever comebacks in my head, but they never made the pain go away.
Recently, during my visit to India, those feelings of unworthiness resurfaced. People questioned me about my weight, my career, and future plans. Even though I had prepared responses, each question felt like another blow to my self-worth.
When I got back to the UAE, I felt broken. Deep down, I still believed I wasn’t good enough. Even though I knew these thoughts weren’t true according to the Bible, I felt like I was drowning in them.
Maybe you’ve felt this way too. You’re not alone—many people struggle with these feelings. But as Christians, we have a hope that goes beyond our emotions. We’re not victims of our thoughts or feelings. The Bible teaches us to bring these thoughts to Jesus and compare them to what God says about us.
Here’s the truth: On our own, we’re not good enough. Even the Apostle Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament, admitted this. He faced all kinds of hardships, yet he told the church in Corinth:
“For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (1 Corinthians 15:9).
No matter what Paul did after his conversion, he couldn’t erase his past. He couldn’t make himself good enough, and neither can we. All the self-care routines, affirmations, and self-help books in the world won’t make us worthy. We can’t earn our significance or worthiness by our own efforts.
Romans 3:23 reminds us, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Our successes, careers, looks, families, money, intelligence, and talents—none of these will make us good enough. We all fall short of what God requires, and that’s a hard truth to accept.
But there’s good news! God doesn’t ask us to be perfect or good enough before we come to Him. Our worthiness doesn’t depend on us—it depends on Jesus. Romans 3:24 says:
“[We] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”
Jesus’ death and resurrection made it possible for God’s grace to cover our inability to be good enough. This is the amazing grace we can hold on to!
When those feelings of inadequacy creep in, we can turn our thoughts to God’s love. We may have nothing to offer on our own, but God has everything we need. Psalm 39:7 says, “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.”
Our hope isn’t in our own abilities; it’s in the Lord.
| Consider this: Realizing that we can’t be good enough on our own should push us closer to God, who loves us just as we are. When we stop focusing on ourselves and start looking to Jesus, we can rest in these truths: – The Lord chose us in Him before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). – We are children and heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16-17). – We can know and understand the Lord, and He knows and understands us (Jeremiah 9:24; Psalm 139). – The Lord showed His love for us through Jesus (1 John 4:9-10). These truths are powerful weapons against the feelings that tell us we’re not good enough. They remind us that while our sin is real, God’s grace is even greater. So let’s lay down our obsession with our own worthiness and trust in God’s amazing love. I’m choosing to lay down my thoughts about myself and rest in God’s truth. Will you join me? |
