You’re Not Enough (But That’s Okay)

Am I enough?

So many teens walk around today asking themselves, “Am I enough?” The world gives us two opposite messages:

1. They boost our self esteem and praise us for our works, looks, job, etc.
2. They destroy our self esteem by telling us all that we aren’t.

I don’t know about you, but I get sent the second one far more many times than the first. I feel that I can’t measure up, please everyone, or meet their expectations.

Have you ever wondered why we constantly feel like a failure? That’s because we are not enough.

Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We are not worthy, holy, or good on our own. And that’s where Jesus comes in.

When sin entered the world in Genesis 3, humans became imperfect. They constantly sinned and could never measure up to God’s expectations. This continues all throughout the Old Testament when people tried to “be like God” or good enough to enter God’s presence.

Because we are not enough…

In a lot of ways, we’re still doing that. We struggle with our feelings of inadequacy and they cause us to doubt, not just ourselves, but God and His love. Or maybe even our salvation. Because we’re so often reminded of our failures and we see so much of our own sin, the fear and inadequacy can be crippling. We know deep within ourselves that we’re not enough. So what should we do? Because we’re not enough, we need to remember these three things.

1. Sacrifices

If you’ve read the Bible a few times, you have probably heard about sacrifices in the Old Testament. The purpose of a sacrifice was to establish, maintain, or restore a right relationship of a human being to a sacred order. Humans couldn’t maintain a perfect relationship. They were sinful, and failed over and over again.

We were not enough. We couldn’t please God. A sacrifice was offered for every sin to restore the relationship with God. I can’t imagine how draining that must have been because I sin more times than I can count daily. Imagine having to find and sacrifice a spotless lamb every single time you did something that didn’t please God.

If we were enough, we wouldn’t have to pay for our sin. We wouldn’t have to have a sacrifice. We can’t compare to a holy God who is more than enough. He is worthy of every praise; we are not. We deserve the wrath of God.

2. Jesus Christ

Our story doesn’t end here. Because we serve such a loving God, He didn’t want us to be punished with His wrath. God’s love goes beyond comparing that He would give His only and perfect son to pay the price for our sin.

His Son made the ultimate sacrifice. We don’t have to offer a sacrifice for our every sin because of what Jesus did. He was enough, so His debt was final. We no longer have to base our worth in what the world tells us, but in what Jesus did for us.

This beautiful gift of salvation means that we die to ourselves daily. We do not live in our flesh, but His Spirit lives through us. We will still fail. We will still mess up. But because of Jesus’ sacrifice, our sins are forgiven. God doesn’t look at us and see our sin, He sees Christ. Share on X

3. He is enough

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

We are called to boast in our weaknesses, because that is when His power is made strong, not ours. He tells us to trust Him that He will be enough for us.

So no, we are not enough. We can never measure up. However, God is enough. And because He is enough, we are brought to fullness. This fullness is ours when we find our satisfaction in Him alone (Colossians 2:10).