Evidently, there are two camps building around the words "You are enough."
I hope the discussion around this phrase rights itself, but in the meantime, I find myself weighing in because this phrase is one of the pivotal phrases that God spoke to me years ago.
Prior to His assurances, I was adrift in a Christian walk that — while refusing to pretend — certainly wasn't walking in power. I attended church, was involved in too many ministries to count, was even on staff at a church for quite a while, discipled others, was discipled, read the Bible regularly, studied it frequently, sang wholeheartedly, served constantly, and believed God loved ME and died for me, without a doubt.
However, when I found myself divorced and childless, I embarked on a short career as a Director of Marketing & Sales for a production studio in Georgia. It was a worldly job and I was in the thick of it. I may have clung to my coke-without-alcohol but I had to make appearances at the parties and rounds. After one such night, driving though a storm to spend the night at a friend's house, I was so miserable that I asked God to make a tree fall on me to take me "home." I was that world-weary.
Then God spoke. Out loud. From the passenger seat of my car.
(I almost got my wish, basically driving off the side of the road for a bit, until I had the sense to stop driving.)
He said "If you don't want your life, I do."
Now, I'm an American girl. I know how to make a good deal. I wanted to know what He'd give me for it. I was more than a little peeved that I'd been serving Him all this time and He'd never once spoken to me in a way that I was 100% sure was Him. So, we had a conversation. This time though, I heard Him clearly in my heart. All the other voices were quiet and His couldn't be ignored or mistaken, now that I recognized Him.
For the next several days He led me through surrender, culminating in Absolute Surrender. It was an incredible journey of me discovering and surrendering with Him guiding and enabling.
One of the first things He had me #surrender was what He called my "worst fear." I frankly didn't even know what that was! I had to ask around. After asking several people, my cousin said her worst fear was "being sent to South America to work with cannibals." My response was like lightning and immediate: "If only I was sent! If I was truly sent, then I would go courageously even to the death!" I went outside to pray. God revealed to me that my number one fear was that I would get up on the altar to offer myself to Him and He would walk on by.
My fear was that I was not enough for the God of the universe to take note of — to accept as a sacrifice. I was afraid I was not enough.
This #fear had been planted somewhere along the way, reinforced by a husband who did not find me "#enough" to stay faithful to, a body that was not "enough" to keep a child, a boyfriend who broke up with me several times over my habits, a pastor who failed me, and my own failure on several levels.
God said "You are enough."
I understood that meant that in my brokenness He was the God Who Sees Me. I understood that meant that He'd participate in the mending of my brokenness and that the investment was worthwhile to Him. I understood that meant that He was enough through me, not me all my by myself. (That last bit is for those who seem to make the message "You are enough" all about us as humans, not "us plus God".)
I surrendered my fear and eventually came to the place of continual, never-ending, no-going-back, wave-the-white-flag, Absolute Surrender.
THIS is the power-source of a sustained Christ-filled life. Combined with the ability to quiet the mind and hear His voice, they are two of the foundational #disciplines to a powerful prayer life.
Grace enables surrender.
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