TODAY’S WORD FOR MONDAY JUNE 19, 2017.
INADEQUATE
DEFINITION:
Not equal to the requirement; insufficient.
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. II Corinthians 3:5.
Everyone has times in their life when they feel inadequate. No one likes the feeling of inadequacy because it causes us to fear we have failed or will fail.
Feeling inadequate is not a sin, but using it as an excuse is. When the Lord challenges you to do something that you feel is beyond your abilities you have two options. You can focus on Christ and proceed with unwavering faith or you can focus on yourself and withdraw in defeat.
No one is adequate to do the Lord’s work in their own ability. It can only be done with God’s help and through the power of His Holy Spirit.
The apostle Paul never claimed that he was capable of accomplishing all that God called him to do. In his letter to the church at Corinth Paul acknowledged that if he was left to his own abilities, he would be useless to God. He clearly recognized that his ability to reason, judge or assess truth was dependent on divine revelation and the power of the Holy Spirit.
This was a lesson Paul learned in a very dynamic and extraordinary way. When Paul was still Saul, before his conversion, he was determined to destroy the church. Full of his self-sufficiency he went from house to house dragging off followers of Jesus and putting them in prison because of their faith (Acts 8:3).
Paul even volunteered to travel to Damascus to capture the believer’s there (Acts 1:9). He felt quite adequate for this task. However, while on the way to Damascus Paul unexpectedly met Jesus. What a change there was in Paul from that moment. All the self-sufficiency he thought he had was gone in the light of God’s glory and might.
Only God can make a person adequate to do His work and Paul realized it so clearly. As Paul did, we also need to do, and that was to look beyond our own adequacy to the sufficiency of Christ. If we do this we can discover the hidden blessings in our own experiences of inadequacy. Look at these few thoughts that come to our minds.
Our insufficiency humbles our pride and brings us on our knees to Christ. This will happen when a situation comes our way that we realize is bigger than what we can handle so we quickly open the Bible and read, pray for guidance and power and then wait to see what God says. Now the Lord has us right where He wants us and that is at the end of our rope with no one to go to but Him.
The inability to do something motivates us to rely on divine power. We will never be adequate until we draw strength from the Holy Spirit. He will do through us what God never intended that we do on our own.
God actually delights in choosing unlikely, weak and inadequate individuals to carry out His purposes. The Lord said to Paul, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness” II Corinthians 12:9. There is no limit what God can do through someone willing to give Him full control of his or her life.
Our adequacy comes from God and inadequacy will challenge our faith. If we will focus on the reliability of this fact and step out in obedience we will grow in faith.
Our memory verse for this week is found in Philippians 3:14.
Press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
It is our prayer that You will make our family adequate through Your power to accomplish the things that You want us to accomplish while we are here on this earth. Take away our fear, pressure and frustrations that seem to overpower us when we face opportunities to serve and represent You to our friends and neighbors.
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