Finding our way through the wilderness

2 Corinthians 3:4-5

New International Version (NIV)

 4 Such confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.

Day Nine

Inadequacy

There comes a point in time, in all of our lives, that we feel inadequate. Some of us experience it more than others, but we all have had time when we feel inapt, unimportant, insignificant, and/or not good enough. These feeling can cause us to become depressed and make us undervalue our own self-worth.

These feelings stem from self-deprecation, which is sometimes caused by someone else’s, usually someone close to us, opinion of us.  Rather it is self-inflicted or caused by someone else; we need to know that none of these things are a true representative of who we are. We are made in the image of our God and He is the exact opposite of those things.

To conquer feeling of inadequacy we must first be able to differentiate between inadequacy and being humble. It may seem strange to connected the two, however many of us mistake feeling inadequate for being humble. This is easy to do because Jesus tells us to be humble. He says that the meek shall inherit the earth and that in heaven the first on earth shall be the last in heaven and the last on earth shall be the first in heaven. He always tells us that the greatest on earth shall be the least in heaven and the least shall be the greatest. So when we hear or read these things we think that it is okay to feel unimportant, that it is okay to feel insignificant, and that it is okay to feel inapt. For we think that we are being humble.

However, what Jesus was meant was that we should not take pride in OUR own abilities.  These words from Jesus were a warning for us not to be boastful and to stay humble to the Lord. They tell us to acknowledge the fact that we owe everything to the Lord. In our scripture above Paul tells us to have confidence through Christ before God and not to be competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes for God. He is saying that we are to be confident but not because of our abilities, but be confident of the Lord’s ability to work through us. Jesus wanted us to be humble but not feel inadequate.

As a Christian we cannot feel inadequate simply because the bible tells us that we are not. Philippians 4:13 says that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Romans chapter 8 tells us that we are more than conquerors and verse thirty-one says if God be for us than who can be against us? So we cannot be inadequate because He that resides inside of us.

So Remember next time we are feeling unimportant, know that God cares for us more than anything in else in this world. The next time that we are feeling insignificant, know that God knows all of our hopes and dreams and in time, His time, He will fulfill both. And the next time that we are feeling inapt or not good enough, know that we are not alone Christ is walking this journey with us and just as the verse said we can do anything because He gives us strength even when we are weak. With Jesus We are more than Conquerors

Please join us tomorrow as we continue our journey. Until then God Bless,

                            James Anthony Love