Well in my book, Living Courageously, I teach
on a very unique fear and it's the fear that I'm not doing
enough. And you might think well that's something that I've never really thought
about.
You know that's why the number one fears that people have.
One time we were kinda taking a a pole in our office to see what
some of the things were that that concerned people the most. And so I think
the question we put to them was if you can ask God anything
what would it be. And several people said, "I would love to know
when I've done enough." You know we love God and we want to do what's right.
We want to study the Word we want to pray. But there's always that
threat, that threatening lie from the devil, that you've
not done enough. You haven't prayed enough. You haven't studied enough.
You haven't given enough. You haven't been a good enough wife.
You've not been a good enough mom. You know your
not eating enough of the right things. It's like well first of all, let
me tell you, God's not counting.
He's not sitting in heaven somewhere, with a
piece of paper, saying, "You did right." "You didn't do right."
"You did right." "You didn't do right." He sent Jesus to die for our mistakes and we can
count on that.
And I'm so glad that I finally learned that. I get up every day
I love God I just try to do the best I can. And I already know before I start
it's not going to be good enough.
It's not going to be enough. If we could ever do enough
then we would not have needed Jesus Christ to die in our place.
He is the only One that is more than enough.
We serve a God that is more than enough. One of the names of God in the
Old Testament
was El Shaddai, the all Breasty One, the God
of more than enough. I'm grateful He's not the God of just-barely-get-by.
He's the God of more than enough. And so I would love to have you relax about whether
you're doing enough or not.
You know I've had a real issue with this in my life because first of
all.
I was abused by my dad for a lot a year sexually so I ended up with
real low self esteem. And I am a natural-born worker. I've got a strong
cleric personality. So I have a tendency to
to get a motivated by accomplishment.
But then I let it get into an area where I was getting my worth and value
out what I did. I didn't receive that from my parents, so I didn't grow up
well grounded
that I was valued and loved. And that they love me and valued me. Or that God loved
me and valued me.
So we all want to have value. As a matter fact.
I don't know that we can survive if we feel that we have no value.
So then if we don't get it from the right places we will try to find
other places to get that value from. And I got it from my work.
And I think a lot of people do that honestly I think a lot of people are
just stressing themselves out to the max
because they're trying to prove to themselves and everybody else
I am valuable. And so I worked and I work and I work and I work and I worked
and I finally had to learn that I couldn't work as hard as I was because I was creating a
lot of stress in my life
and not only that when you do nothing but work you end up getting bitter
because you feel like well all I do is work.
But I had to be the one that was willing to lay that aside.
And it seemed like no matter how hard I worked I still never felt like it was
enough.
And I learned that no matter how many things I had on my to do list for the
day
at the end of the day I still had some of them left. And so that I would look at
that list
like well I didn't do enough. And you know what I'm happy to announce to you
that I am free from that now.
And you can be free from that too. God is not keeping a record
of what you do. Your right standing with Him is not based on what you do.
It's based on what Christ has done and your faith in Him.
And so you let God lead you, and even realize this
you can't look at somebody else so I should be doing what you're doing.
You know different people have different gifts different amounts of grace
and there might be one mom who could raise three kids and hold on a full-time job
there might be another mom that just couldn't handle that.
And you know what that doesn't mean that you're less than or that you have no
value if you're not doing enough.
It just means that you're different and you need to do what God has ask you to do.
And live in the grace said He's giving you and not be concerned about what He's
given somebody else to do.
You know I am the the person whose face
everybody sees my face on TV. And so I'm kinda like the face to the ministry.
But my husband is equally a very important part of the ministry.
He just hasn't been called to do the teaching.
And in the beginning of our walk in ministry
it was a little hard for Dave. And as he began to pray about it
God put on his heart, "If you live in the grace that I've given you
you'll always be happy. Don't try to do
what Joyce is doing. That's not what I've called you to do.
You do the part that I've given you to do." And you know what Dave does have a
major role. He has a part
and you have a part, other people that you know have a part.
Don't feel pressured to do more than your part.
You do what God has given you to do and don't buy into that lie anymore that
you've not done enough.
Christ is more than enough. We don't need to try to be more than enough.
God bless you.
Have a great day.