When Will I Feel Like I'm Enough?

Have you ever had this thought…When will I feel like I'm enough? It's a gut punch. Let's be real, right? We all have that. 

So this morning, I was praying, and I was asking God, Lord help me. How can I make this a message? What do I need to say to my sisters to help them through this? How can I help myself? This is a place we all struggle with. And he brought the woman at the well to mind. 

Friend, have you ever really like dug into all the layers and all the context and all the meaning behind that? If not, don’t worry! I'm going to unpack all of this today with you. Because her story teaches us about worth and feeling enough. Let’s dive in!

Are you striving for your enoughness?

Apart from God, are you getting your fulfillment from how many people follow you on social media? How cute you look today in your outfit? There's no judgment here.I have felt like both of these. So I just want to make sure you know, I'm talking from experience.

I want to help you spot the not-enoughness trap because it is a poison and it drives us in bad ways to do things we really don't want to do and creates a life we really don't want. 

Let's read John 4:4-26. I'm going to share it with you because you know, without the word of God, we have nothing. This is our rock, and I did a deep dive study on it, so we can understand and answer that question: When will I feel enough?

“4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Who was this woman? Why did Jesus talk to her? She was a Samaritan woman, and back then, Jews and Samaritans did not like each other. A Samaritan was viewed as unclean. She went to the well at noon, and this was odd because it was the hottest part of the day, but she knew that no one would be there. And because she had had five husbands and was living with another man, she knew that she was an outcast and being judged in her society.

One Request

Jesus asked her for a drink. That was scandalous. With one request, Jesus broke a number of sets of social taboos, don't talk to Samaritans, don't talk to women in public, don't greet a woman, and don't be alone with women and a Samaritan. I love how Jesus didn't care about all that man-made societal stuff. He didn't care about any of those rules. 

He crossed so many religious, cultural, and socio-economic barriers in order to offer this woman the one thing she was longing for - living water. John 4:26 tells us that Jesus revealed himself as God. For the first time to this woman. She meets Jesus, someone who did not avoid her because she was a Samaritan. Jesus sees her. He loves her. In His world, she's not excluded, she's included. She's not alone. She is not isolated. And she is not going to have to suffer from that not enoughness judgment. 

Jesus sets her free, and she ends up saving her whole town. Jesus told her all the things she ever did. Jesus sat with her. He knew her, he loved her. He accepted her and she was enough. Just like you and me, sister. 

What Attacks Your Worth

What makes you feel like you aren't enough? Sometimes we need to bring out the ugly, the hurt, the pain, the pride, whatever it is, we need to bring it to Jesus. Here are some real examples that I’ve heard:

• We can't lose enough weight. 
• We can't get a good enough job. 
• We can't make enough money. 
• I don't feel like enough because I didn't finish college. 
• I had an abortion. 
• I got a divorce. 
• I cheated on my husband. 
• I was molested as a kid. 
• People think of me as the fat friend. 
• No one likes me. 
• When I walk into a room of people, I feel like everyone just looks down. 
• I have failed on every diet I've ever started. 
• I hate working out. 
• I think I should have more success than I have now. 

These are DM’s, emails, comments, you name it that I get sent every single day. Sister, we are not in this alone!!

We're Christian women who love Jesus, we need to sit at the well and lose the shame and let the living water just rush over us. There is such a deep place in us that only Jesus can wash clean. He's the only one. So if you don't feel enough today, because of something that you try to hide, sit at the well with him. 

Jesus is enough. 

Jesus is enough and he is within you so you will always be enough. Jesus wants to sit with you and say, whoever drinks of this water that I give, will never thirst, but the water that I shall give will become a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life and a new life. 

Let’s read Ephesians 2:1-10, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

We need to sit down with Jesus. We are so frantic and so anxiety-ridden and so stressed out. Start saying this daily, Lord, I'm casting my cares on you, for you care for me. I'm going to sit down, and my spirit next to you, I'm going to exhale, and I'm going to rest in you, Lord, thank you for taking my sin. 

Three Things You Need to Know Today

The first one is that God loves you. YOU are someone special to Him!

The second is that God is the living water. The gift of living water is the salvation that the Holy Spirit imparts. It is the Lord Himself dwelling in us believers. The living water that Jesus gives is a gift. It's not something that you can earn, work for, or be good enough for. It isn't good enough. 

The third is to worship in spirit. That means that we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. We can worship anytime, anywhere. You can tell Jesus right now that thing that you hide that steals your peace and makes you feel like you're not enough, and I pray you talk to him and get set free because he wants you to worship Him in spirit and truth. 

Let’s pray together before you go!

Dear God, It can be painful being a woman in the world today. Things comes at us to make us feel like we're not enough. For some of us, it's our weight or age, or maybe it's the way people talk about how we look, our makeup, our clothes, our zip code, or marriages or children. But in this moment, we reject all of that because we know that in you, we are enough, and that is the only way we will ever feel enough.

Father, help us go forward from this pit of not-enoughness to press on to our upward call in Christ. Father help us spot the not-enoughness lies, how we look at ourselves, and how the mirror lies to us. Let us see the things clearly that are not of you. Set us free today. Set our sisters free. Have the Holy Spirit well up in them, and remind them that because of you, they are enough. So they can go and tell those they love. We want to make more disciples. We want to lead people to you. Father, we want people to know the gifts you have given us. Your love, your freedom, your grace.
Father, I have one last request. I ask that anyone who needs prayer feels free to reach out to me. I want them to know they are not alone in that pit of not-enoughness or their shame-based thoughts or whatever "thing" that keeps them feeling broken. God, I don't want anyone to feel alone. Father, put it on their heart to reach out to me or someone else. Put it on their heart to take action so that they are no longer alone struggling with this in the dark and that their issue is brought into the light and prayed for, so it can be set free in you, Jesus. We love you. I love my sisters so much. Father, we pray this all in your name. Amen.
 
We aren't enough. That's why God sent His Son Jesus. There's nothing we could do to be enough. We could never be good enough. On our own. We can never be enough. Whatever makes you feel like you're not enough, that is a place the devil is tripping you and lying to you and trying to steal. 

This is a call to action, simply for us to take our not-enoughness place to Jesus. Because we are enough in him right now. Not because of ourselves. There's has nothing to do with us. Only because of him.