18 Nov GOD KNOWS THAT YOU ARE INADEQUATE

You are inadequate.  I am inadequate. We are all inadequate.  I hate to admit this about myself, but it’s the truth.  If I was not honest about my inadequacies, I would be of no use to God, and these words would have been written in vain.  I have failed more times than I have succeeded.  I have failed at relationships.  I have failed at being a friend at times.  I have at times failed at being a good Son.  A good Brother.  A good Employee.  A good Neighbor.  A good Man.  A good Father.  I have a lifetime of failures in my past, in my present, and I am sure in my future.  No matter how close you get to God, you will still be inadequate.  Please get this in your Spirit! 

It will save you a lot of heartache and distress.  It saved me. A Pastor by the name of Charles Swindoll shared a story one time, concerning a student that was attending Seminary School where he taught. The Student was dealing with depression, but he did not reach out to anyone on staff for help or advice about his inner struggles.  He suffered in silence.  This student wound up subsequently hanging himself.  For your sake, put it on Christ shoulders please! Do not let your inadequacies, insecurities, failures, fears, or your spiritual deficiencies become a millstone around your neck.  The pressures of School, the pressures of expectations, the pressures of results, the pressures of life. All these things are too much for anyone to handle perfectly.

Listen to me. YOU WILL NEVER BE GOOD ENOUGH! EVER!  You will never do what no man or woman before you has ever done, and that is be adequate. It is from this understanding that the need for God’s spirit to dwell in us becomes ever more clear. We need Gods spirit to help us accomplish the things that is not in us.  Christ said in to his disciples in the book of John ch.14 verse 16: “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever”.

Jesus knew the disciples were not able to carry the burden and fulfill all that God for them to do without constant assistance. That was the spirit of God is. Constant assistance. It needs to be dwelling in us at all times, because we are in danger of falling to sin at all times. Inadequate is what we must be, in order to depend on God who is always adequate. 

Even in knowing this, we have a hard time with failures.  Because even though we have Gods spirit dwelling in us, it is dwelling inside of a sinful body. So we are susceptible to sinning and will always sin at some point. I am an overachiever.  I came from a poor background.  Never thought much of myself.  Never expected much from myself.  Factor in all the negative things I heard growing up from people, I adopted everything they said and took them as cannon.  Going to school and getting a good job changed my external image.  I dressed a lot nicer.  Drove a nice car.  Wore a nice watch.  Ate at nice places. However, no material items, no matter how impressive or luxurious they were, erased the feelings of inadequacy and having a poor self-image of myself. 

A poor self image does not go away just because you dress nice.  All it does is cover up what is lying underneath the surface. I never felt good about myself since childhood, but I had the appearance that I felt great about myself!  And that is the point.  Not to let people know the insecurities that lie beneath all of us.  The inadequacy.  The flaws.  The fears.  The failures.  I’m sure people who knew the kid in the story above who hung himself, had no idea the seriousness of what he was dealing with on the inside.  We hide pain, we hide shame, and we hide our insecurities.  Most times this is how it happens.  A person how had the appearance of someone who was happy commits suicide. They seemed to have it all together. No one knew the type of torment they were dealing with on the inside.

It baffles people when someone on Facebook and Instagram who has 20,000 friends and followers commits suicide seemingly out of the blue.  Or a celebrity who is rich, famous, attractive and adored by many takes their own life.  They look like they have everything going for them. 

Most have not dealt with the fact that no matter how much people adore them, and no matter how great they are at a particular thing, they are still inadequate. When you’re in that kind of environment (celebrity and fame), that is one of the worse things to have to come to grips with.  Many people are telling you your great, all the while you’re feeling less than on the inside.  A very famous BMX rider name Dave Mirra committed suicide a few years back who falls into the latter category.  Famous, rich, beautiful wife and family.  Everything a man could seemingly want, but something was missing.  If you do not know Christ, there will always be something missing. 

Please know you will not accomplish anything for God outside of God.  He has made a plan A through Z for your inadequacy’s and failures.  He will NOT disown you or abandon you for your imperfections.  God can do more with a broken and contrite heart then he can with a man or women that possess many talents.  He already knew you were imperfect when he called you, and he has already seen your failings.  What he will do is ask you to find strength in him,  find perfection in him,  find adequacy in him. 

He is the only one that can provide that.  It is found in him.  If you look within yourself, you’ll never find it.  You are looking for it in the wrong place.  God has said to all that love him, “You will make mistakes, and when you do, I will be there still”.  If you’re in me you’re in!  Period.  “I will never leave you nor forsake you”. That’s what that means. He’s all in on you.

There is no escape clause on you. In many Business contracts there is an escape clause. If things are not going the way one person was expecting, they are able to get out of the contract through an “escape clause”. When Jesus was crucified, he did not draw up and escape clause in his plan of grace and salvation for us. He will order your steps even in the midst of your mistakes and failures. 

Even in all your inadequacy’s….