Am I good enough?
There’s a situation where a man lives in bondage long enough that he accepts bondage as “freedom”.
This was my epiphany as I began to renew my mind in the word of God. One of the things I noticed — deep undercurrents that run almost unnoticed but influence everything I do- is “condemnation”. It comes in such a subtle form that nothing I did was good enough. It was a state of constant guilt and sometimes shame. However, as I began to renew my mind in the Word of God to see how God sees me, I began to pick these things that kept me in bondage.
The root of the bondage is actually a noble desire to be “good”. However, translating that desire into action led me into bondage. Why? I felt that I could do it myself. I could try to be good enough for God and be a good person with my strength of will. I failed horribly. This failure is not from a lack of trying but because no man can be “good” with their strength of will. The curious thing is that this attempt at being “good” on our strength is the source of many achievements, but ultimately, it leaves us dissatisfied.
And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. — Romans 7:18 (NLT)
We, Christians, are often drawn into the dilemma of trying to earn the love of God by being “good enough”. We repeat the same things we loathe and try to stop with our will. Sadly, it never works. No wonder the bible said no man prevails by his strength.
He will protect his faithful ones, but the wicked will disappear in darkness. No one will succeed by strength alone. — 1 Samuel 2:9 (NLT)
So, how do we succeed in this desire to be good? Paul gives us the solution to the problem. It is simple. We (Christians) are the righteousness of God, which means that as Christians, we are good already.
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. — Romans 8:1 (NLT)
God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. — 1 Corinthians 1:30 (NLT)
All we need is to accept it, i.e., to yield to it. This acceptance is not superficial. This truth must become deeply seated in us, so much so that even if our outer man sinned, we still see ourselves in the right standing with God.
You might think… doesn’t this give us a licence to sin? On the contrary, this doesn’t give anyone a licence to sin. That would mean the person is either not born again or doesn’t understand the gospel. Knowing we are in the right standing means that we can approach God confidently, knowing that we are loved unconditionally. That realization then births within us a desire to please Him. A desire that He (not you) will empower and give expression.
For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. — Philippians 2:13 (NLT)
So I want to encourage you. You can’t be good enough for someone who already sees you as being right and good. Just accept what He has given to you and live freely. Oh, the devil will whisper and try to pull you into guilt and despair. Just quote these verses above back to Him as long as it takes your mind to accept it. Pray in those verses until it becomes a part of you.
Note that the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. The difference between conviction and condemnation is that condemnation says, “You are bad,” but conviction says, “You are good, but you did a bad thing”. See the difference? One attacks your identity, while the other deals with the wrong action. Conviction encourages us to live up to our Godly identity.
A simple way to differentiate the two is that when condemnation comes, we feel guilty and ashamed without a possible solution. Conviction points out the sin in love and points us to what Christ did for us.
Condemnation pulls us down. Conviction invites us to come up higher
I encourage you. Live free. Live in the Righteousness of God. You can never be good based on your self-efforts anyway, so why bother?
