More Power to YouSýnishorn

I Am Who Christ Says I Am

Lie: “I’m not enough.”

God handcrafts all of creation in abounding joy. With each day, he echoes its goodness until the sixth day, when God sculpts humanity and declares it as very good. Then a dark character slithers into the scenery and whispers a twisty truth. He suggests that God does not really want the original couple to be like God. That’s why God is holding back the fruit (Genesis 3:4–5). The serpent plants seeds of inadequacy to create separation. Eve is hoodwinked into believing that if she will eat the fruit, she will be enough.

Sometimes I wonder how Eve could have fallen for this mistruth. Yet how often I’ve fallen for the same falsehood. I may not say “I’m not enough” with my words, but like reaching for a forbidden fruit, my actions shout otherwise.

Looking back, I realize I started young as a pressure-cooker kid. In high school, I lived under the anxiety that I wasn’t enough and worked extra hard to prove otherwise. I was so scared that I wouldn’t meet expectations, apply to the right colleges, pick the right career path, win the right competitions, and earn the approval of my teachers and parents that I started bleeding inside. A doctor identified an ulcer and instructed me to dramatically decrease my stress. His advice, while necessary, added another item to my to-do list and made me feel shame for making myself sick.

Beneath the mountain of anxiety rested an insidious lie, an agreement I had made with the Accuser that I was not enough. This “not enoughness” led to a life marked by striving, discontentment, and fear. You. Are. Not. Enough. These four words comprise one of the Enemy’s cruelest and most destructive lies. Maybe you carry an unspoken feeling that you are not enough for your spouse or your children. Not enough for your parents. Not enough as a leader, teacher, coach, or employee. Not even enough for God.

This lie is so effective that in the wilderness Satan uses it on Jesus: “If you are the Son of God,” then turn these stones into fresh-baked loaves, leap from the top of the temple, kneel to me and have all the kingdoms of the world. In other words, you don’t have enough provision, enough power, enough potential. You. Are. Not. Enough.

Jesus counters each lie with the words “It is written . . . ,” grounding himself in God’s Word (Matthew 4:1–11). He allows Scripture to guide his steps and shape his responses. In the heavenly Father, Jesus is deeply loved, celebrated, and empowered. And so are you.

As he did with Eve in the garden and Jesus in the wilderness, the Enemy will try to convince you that you’re not enough, but through the power of God’s Word, you can send that viper back where he belongs. If Christ sits on the throne of your life, then he retains the final say about who you are, what you’re called to do, and what you’re capable of. Jesus sees you when others overlook you, he hears you when others ignore you, and he makes you more powerful than you imagine.