When You Feel Inadequate (Part Two)

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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

First, acknowledge your inadequacy to God. Joni Eareckson Tada says, ‘Deny your weakness, and you will never realize God’s strength in you.’ God told Paul, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Anything that makes you lean on God is a plus and not a minus.

Second, stop putting yourself down. You say, ‘But I lack the qualifications to do the job.’ God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called. How? By filling them with His Spirit. ‘I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit’ (Joel 2:28-29). God isn’t limited by age, gender, race, or academic status. The only thing that limits Him is the limit you place on yourself or allow others to.

Third, don’t buy it. Advertisers spend billions of dollars to convince you that without their product you are inadequate or incomplete. Don’t believe them! Begin to say, ‘I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Psalm 139:14).

Fourth, view the excellence or superior performance of someone else as a source of motivation rather than intimidation. Meanwhile, don’t lose sight of your unique giftedness. Yes, you are gifted in some area. ‘Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them’ (Romans 12:6 NKJV). Your gift may be undiscovered, undeveloped, or unused, but it resides within you. Today, unlock it and begin to use it.

Prayer

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When You Feel Inadequate (Part One)

“Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.” (2 Corinthians 3:5)

The fear of inadequacy is a state of mind in which you think your best is not good enough. Usually, it originated in childhood when our parents, teachers, and others we considered important, failed to appreciate and affirm us or compared us negatively to someone else. You will see it from Moses, who felt inadequate to be the spokesman and liberator for the Israelites, to the late pop star Michael Jackson, who exerted himself to attain physical and professional perfection. No statistics can measure the number of abandoned dreams due to this paralyzing emotion. To rid yourself of it, you must learn to embrace these two truths:

1) Apart from God you are inadequate.

2) Infused with God’s strength, you are adequate to any challenge He calls you to face.

Paul writes: ‘Not that we are fit (qualified and sufficient in ability) of ourselves to form personal judgments or to claim or count anything as coming from us, but our power and ability and sufficiency are from God. [It is He] Who has qualified us [making us to be fit and worthy and sufficient] as ministers…of a new covenant’ (vv. 5-6). Many of the heroes in the Bible struggled with the fear of inadequacy, so you’re in good company! Moses told God, ‘I can’t go and talk to Pharaoh, send someone else’ (see Exodus 3:11; 4:13).

The real story of these Bible heroes is that they overcame their fear and said yes to God. They stepped out in faith and said in essence, ‘Lord, I am depending on you for my success.’ Our human ego likes to look good and claim the credit. But God puts us into a position of forced dependence so that the credit for our success goes to Him.

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Always Ask, ‘What Does the Bible Say?’

“Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.” (Acts 20:30)

Paul writes: ‘From among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified’ (vv. 30-32).

When someone claims ‘special revelation from God’ that doesn’t line up with what Scripture teaches, don’t buy it! Do what the Bereans did: ‘They received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true’ (Acts 17:11). Whose teachings did the Bereans put under the searchlight of Scripture? Paul’s!

No leader, regardless of the size of their following, is beyond such scrutiny. Indeed, good leaders welcome it. ‘But doesn’t God still have more to say to us?’ you ask. Yes, and when you take your last breath, you still won’t know everything. Does God have new and effective strategies for reaching the world with the gospel in this age of technology? Yes, and we must embrace and utilize them in order to reap the final harvest. But we must never compromise when it comes to God’s Word.

‘From among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things.’ Sometimes the greatest threat to truth comes from those we know, love, and have worked with, who have wandered off track. So, what’s the answer? It’s simple. Always ask, ‘What does the Bible say?’ and make that your benchmark.

Prayer

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The Blessing of Unanswered Prayer

“When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4:3)

A pastor writes: ‘According to legend, King Midas loved gold so much that when Dionysus granted him a wish, Midas asked that everything he touched would turn to gold. At first, Midas was delighted with his request, but when he discovered that his touch made food inedible and his embrace made loved ones lifeless, he stumbled upon what sociologist Robert Merton called the law of unintended consequences. Like Midas, getting what we want can result in…undesirable consequences. So much for the Midas touch.

Sometimes an unanswered prayer is God, in His sovereign wisdom, sparing us the pain of unintended consequences. Sometimes God allows what His power could prevent. Most of the time that causes us a great deal of temporal angst, but someday we will owe God as many thank-yous for the prayers He did not answer as the ones He did.’ James writes, ‘You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures’ (vv. 2-3). C.S. Lewis said, ‘If God had granted all the silly prayers I’ve made in my life, where would I be now?’

The pastor continues: ‘Many of our prayers are misguided. We pray for comfort instead of character. We pray for an easy way out instead of the strength to make it through…Many of our prayers would short-circuit God’s plans and purposes for our lives if He answered them. Maybe we should stop asking God to get us out of difficult circumstances and start asking Him what He wants us to get out of those difficult circumstances.’

Prayer

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How to Influence and Impact Others

“My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” (James 1:19)

There is no magic trick when it comes to influencing and influencing others. The Bible gives you the formula, and here it is:

1) Try to listen carefully. The truth is that people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care. They tend to filter what they hear through their own life experiences, hang-ups, and the particular problem that’s on their mind at that moment. So, if you want people to listen when you speak, listen carefully to them.

2) Don’t say too much. If you tend to talk too much, or too fast, here are three tips to slow yourself down: a) Stop. Just stop talking. Inhale. Count to ten. Excuse yourself and go to the bathroom. b) Practice not interrupting. Allow the other person to finish what he or she is saying. c) Ask yourself why you’re talking so much. Is it insecurity? Or anxiety? Or a need to control? Or a desire to impress? The reason many of us try to convince, impress, or control others is because we have a hard time trusting God to work things out. Just deliver the message and trust God to do the rest.

3) Keep your anger in check. If you implement the first two principles, you will tend to do fine on number three. It will just happen. The good news is, starting today you can learn to do all three things. And if you practice them consistently year after year, when you get to the end of your life, looking back, you will be glad you took God’s Word and His wisdom seriously.

Prayer

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Who Helps You?

“I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many people, including me.” (Romans 16:2)

Charles Plumb was a pilot in Vietnam, and after seventy-five combat missions, his plane was demolished by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected, parachuted into enemy hands, and spent the next six years in a Communist prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on what he learned from his experience.

One day when he and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man from another table walked over and said, ‘You’re Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!’ Plumb said, ‘How in the world did you know that?’ The man replied, ‘I packed your parachute.’ Then the man grabbed his hand and said, ‘I guess it worked!’ Plumb assured him it had: ‘If your chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.’

That night he couldn’t sleep, wondering about the man. What had he looked like in a Navy uniform? How many times had Plumb seen him without even asking, ‘How are you?’ – or anything else – because Plumb was a fighter pilot and the other man was only a sailor. He pondered the many hours that sailor had spent in the bowels of the ship, meticulously weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands the destiny of a stranger. As a result, Plumb routinely asks his audience an important question: ‘Who’s packing your parachute?’

All of us have someone who provides what we need to make it through the day. Paul said Phoebe ‘has been helpful to many, and especially to me’. Who helps you? Today show them your appreciation.

Prayer

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Running to Win

“If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” (Matthew 5:29)

Desperate situations sometimes call for desperate measures, and severing your supply line to your flesh means getting radical. Jesus puts it like this: ‘If your right eye leads you astray pluck it out and throw it away…better…to lose one of your members than that your whole body should be thrown on to the rubbish-heap. Yes, if your right hand leads you astray cut it off and throw it away…better…to lose one of your members than that your whole body should go to the rubbish-heap’ (vv. 29-30). Jesus is advocating moral and spiritual surgery – and that’s radical! There is no way to argue, reason, or negotiate with sin. Whatever your personal battle – gambling, alcohol, drugs, wrong relationships, or internet porn – its purpose is to destroy you, and it needs to be eradicated.

The apostle Paul was familiar with Old Testament Scripture. He knew that when faced with similar temptation, Samson fell while Joseph stood strong. That’s why he wrote to his spiritual son, Timothy, warning him about the sin that could disqualify him and keep him from winning the race: ‘Run from temptations that capture young people’ (2 Timothy 2:22 CEV). Life in today’s environment is saturated with seductive influences, which means we can’t always eliminate the source. So, Paul tells Timothy – when you can’t remove the influence, remove yourself! And furthermore, run, don’t walk. You can be free, but your carnal mind will only give you a few seconds before it decides for you. So don’t hesitate, don’t deviate, and don’t procrastinate. Do what needs to be done – and do it quickly.

Prayer

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Stop Covering It Up

“He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” (Proverbs 28:13)

The Bible says, ‘He who covers his sins will not prosper. But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy’ (v. 13). Could this be the reason you’re not succeeding? Unresolved guilt has the ability to corrode your confidence like acid. But there is an answer: ‘Whoever confesses and forsakes [his sins] will have mercy.’ Confess it to God! He already knows what you have done – He is just waiting for you to deal with it so He can forgive you and bless you again.

‘God is Light, and there is no darkness in Him at all [no, not in any way]’ (1 John 1:5). The light of God reveals things. When a light is switched on in a room, we can see dust and bugs scattering. And when God gets involved in our lives, He begins to show us things we may prefer not to see; things we have been hiding, even from ourselves. We’re often deceived, especially about ourselves. We don’t want to deal with our faults, and we don’t enjoy having them exposed. Privately we feel condemned by them, but at least we feel like they’re hidden. But anything hidden has power over us because we fear it may be discovered.

Refuse to live that way. The best and most liberating thing you can do is to face what God wants to take care of and get beyond the fear of it. David said, ‘I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and You forgave the iniquity of my sin’ (Psalm 32:5).

Prayer

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Are You Stressed Out? Part Three

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Stress is like kryptonite (Superman’s nemesis), and it’s out to knock off your cape and diminish you to a heap of trembling, useless mush. What should you do?

1) Immerse your exhaustion. Try a bubble bath. Even simply standing in the shower can assist in washing away fatigue and reviving your breathless body tissues and brain cells. Feel the moment and focus on the water’s invigorating sensory contribution to your skin; allow it to spread resilience to your spirit. You say, ‘That doesn’t sound very spiritual.’ Job’s friend Zophar would disagree with you – he said to Job, who had more troubles than you will ever see: ‘You will forget your misery; it will be like water flowing away’ (Job 11:16).

2) Request help! Allocate responsibilities and chores. When everyone does their portion, no one is left depleted. ‘Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble’ (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10).

3) Release perfectionism. Nobody is perfect but Jesus, and you’re not Him. Let some things go. Tomorrow, give up a few more. Over time, those chores will stop nagging at you, and you will truly feel the stress in the pit of your stomach disintegrate.

You will never be totally free from stress, but you can learn to cope with it and conquer it. Jesus said, ‘I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world’ (John 16:33).

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Are You Stressed Out? Part Two

“You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” (Isaiah 55:12)

Let’s look at three proven and effective strategies for dealing with stress (No matter what age you are!).

1) Place yourself on your daily to-do list. Designate fifteen minutes twice a day to renew, regroup, and restore. Distance yourself from the stress source, even if that simply means stepping outside for a few minutes and going for a walk to refresh your brain. Sing your favorite song or do whatever helps you to chill. And persevere when other events threaten to crowd you out. You’re important – learn to value yourself.

2) Lighten up! The Bible says, ‘The joy of the LORD is your strength’ (Nehemiah 8:10), and when your joy goes, so does your strength and ability to cope. Some people think Christians should always be sober, humorless, and as quiet as the grave. But Jesus arose from the grave – and that’s one of the best reasons in the world to celebrate.

3) Relax your stiff muscles with five-minute stress-relievers throughout the day. Stop thinking and move! Stretch out, bend over, roll your tense shoulders, chase the dog – get that invigorating blood flowing throughout your body while your mind takes a mini-break. Turn up the praise music and line dance while pushing a vacuum cleaner…swing dance while stirring the food on the stove…and boogie with the shopping trolley in the cereal aisle! Physical activity triggers your brain to secrete beta-endorphin, which helps calm you.

You weren’t meant to live under stress. The Bible says, ‘You will go out with joy and be led out in peace.’… and that came straight from the mouth of the One who created and redeemed you.

Prayer

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