Dealing with Feelings of Inadequacy:
Knowing and Understanding Christ's Sufficiency

By Filoiann Wiedenhoff

 

"God made him who had no
 sin to be sin for us, so that in him
 we might become the righteousness
 of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV

 

s a Christian do you feel inadequate?  Do you struggle to view yourself as God views you?  You are not alone. Unless you are Superman, I can assume everyone at one time or another feels inadequate in something. It has to be true because we are all gifted and talented in different areas but not everyone is perfect in all areas, except God.

God made us unique and different and gave us unique talents, gifts, abilities and also He gave us unique families, backgrounds and experiences that make us who we are today.

God in His infinite and divine mind, created us to be unique for a reason. I believe one reason is so we would learn to work together, needing each other and helping one another as one unit and one body with Christ as the Head.

If our body only had feet, we could walk but we couldn’t grab or pick up things. The same is true if we were all hands – we could hold things and grab things but we couldn’t go anywhere. I’m sure you are getting my drift here.  

So what does this have to do with feeling inadequate? I’m giving you a visual demonstration that what you might perceive as adequate in someone else may be true, but what you don’t see is that everyone has inadequacies in some areas because we are not perfect, no one is.  One man's strength can be another man's weakness.

The Bible says we “all” fall short of the glory of God. Do you know what “all” in the Greek and Hebrew means? It means “all.”  I'm not being sarcastic, it really does.  It means no one is righteous, no not one. We are all born sinful from the day Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden. We, as their offspring, inherited their sin and their sinful nature.

It’s important for us to understand this reality because without understanding we are indeed sinful by nature, and born inadequate, we will never see the need for Christ’s sufficiency. God’s whole purpose to send His Son, Jesus, was to be born of a virgin, sinless, to die as a pure and perfect sacrifice. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” – John 3:16 NKJV

Christ’s life, death, and resurrection fulfilled God’s requirement of holiness and gave us the bridge back to God. I will repeat this scripture passage because this is the key:  "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." - 2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV.  It is only "in Him" that we become the righteousness of God. 

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” - Ephesians 2:8-10 NIV.

I have now laid the foundation that our inadequacy cannot be fulfilled on our own and that true sufficiency comes from Christ and Christ alone, Who makes us not only adequate but justified before God. We, as His dearly loved children, can now view ourselves as new creations in Christ, saints, a holy priesthood and a holy temple. Do you believe this? If you are a born again Christian, this is who we are in Christ, and as His children we need to believe it and receive it by faith.  

Our greatest difficulty as a new creation in Christ is continuing to view ourselves in light of our old life and our old identity, rather than our new life in Christ, which is what the Bible says we are to do.  "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new."  NKJV – 2 Corinthians 5:17.  

Did you notice the word "all" again?  All things have passed away and all things have become new.  We may not see this physically right away but we can believe it spiritually and immediately because this is now a matter of faith.  As we allow God to change us from the inside, our outside is being transformed into the image of God's Son day by day.   

Here are some practical tips on how to receive this in your hearts and believe it by faith.

• Accept that you can’t: Our sinful nature does not allow us to be righteous before God on our own strengths, talents, or abilities.  Our righteousness is no righteousness at all, but rather filthy rags before the Lord.  If we were righteous on our own, Christ's life, death and resurrection would not have been necessary and would have been in vain.  There is nothing we can "do" to make us adequate or justified before God.  We need a Savior and Christ's Sufficiency.  One of my favorite passages reminds me of this. "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.  I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain." NKJV - Galatians 2:20-21. 

• Acknowledge that He can:  Acknowledging also means proclaiming and believing something to be true, as in testifying that God through Christ has made us sufficient through His death and resurrection. We no longer stand in our own righteousness but stand in Christ’s righteousness, which is enough. The Bible says that apart from Him we can do nothing; but we can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens us. Christ is our sufficiency.  “As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. “ - 2 Peter 1:3-4 NKJV.

• Believe by Faith that He is Able: It is important we understand we are sufficient in Christ by faith. That we can’t but God can and is working in us and through us according to His will through the Holy Spirit. How we think and feel about ourselves should be according to God's Word and not governed by our emotions or feelings. We are to see and view ourselves through God's eyes rather than our own because now our identity is in Christ Jesus. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  For by it the elders obtained a good testimony." NKJV-Hebrews 11:1.  

• Rest in Him: The Bible also says we are to come to Him, all who are weary and burdened, and He will give us rest (Matthew 11:28-30).   As we remember we no longer have to strive under the old Mosaic law to justify ourselves we can now rest in Him and His righteousness. "For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” NKJV - Romans 6:10-11. 

We now can be confident in not only His power but His love and His sufficiency that Jesus really is enough!  When I myself look at my own inadequacies, I have to take my eyes off of myself and put them back on Christ. I have to remember I’m not perfect but Christ’s perfection and grace is sufficient for me and I also have to remind myself that when I am weak, then I am strong because Christ’s power rests upon me. Having this understanding empowers me to walk in Him, walk in His Spirit and walk in His holiness because it’s not me but Christ living in me!

I hope these words have encouraged you as it did me to rest in Christ’s sufficiency and His righteousness.  When you are experiencing those feelings of inadequacy, accept that you can’t but God can and has in you and through you and that His grace is sufficient for you. Accept that you can rest confidently in Him and come boldly to His throne of Grace in your hour and time of need. (Hebrews 4:16). 

“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. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” - 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NIV.

If you are reading this and you don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, know that Jesus knows you and desires to have a personal relationship with you and give you His salvation and His sufficiency. Confess your sins and ask Him to come into your heart today. You can read my testimony on my website and also instructions on how to receive salvation. It will be the most important decision you have ever made.

Or, if you are one who has received Christ but cannot see yourself as a new creation, pray and ask God to help you with your unbelief. The Bible also says, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).  Go boldly to His throne of Grace and receive His mercies that are new every morning; for we are no longer under the law but under grace through Christ Jesus our Lord.