How to Trade Your Not-Enough for God’s Abundantly-Able

I’d rather avoid the things that feel out of my control. Settle for safe dreams that feel within grasp. Trust my own ability to learn, create, perfect.

But God in His tender kindness nudges me towards what I can’t do on my own. I remember this on Day 55 of Mary Demuth’s 90 Day Bible Reading Challenge (aff) as I read Zechariah 4:6.

The Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, has said this to Zerubbabel: “Your strength and prowess will not be enough to finish My temple, but My Spirit will be.”
The Voice

I want to be enough. Get it all the way right. Finish it on my own. But hold my not-enough in open hands. Release. Surrender. Dig deeper and discover more to let go. That’s hard.

And it’s holy. Gift dripping with grace. God here in this paper-thin place.

I’d tell you I know God’s good, but then I met Him on my knees and through many tears and with worship music loud and on repeat and I know Him differently now. When praise is easy, you trust what you see. Take prayers answered how you expect as evidence that God hears, cares, redeems. But when you’re in the middle a long time and don’t know how it will end, you’ve got to lean into what you can’t see. Trust that God is good now. Nevertheless.

Even when He’s not done yet—because there is where His more-than-enough collides with your not-enough.

Grief-gifts, Unhinged Trust, and Nevertheless Gratitude

It’s an hour later, and I rush to shower and get the kids to school, heart brimming-full from the morning’s reading. I select a t-shirt—one I’ve been avoiding—because today I don’t want numb. I need to feel all of a fresh-opened ache.

This shirt winds back the clock to another early morning with the same open Bible. I’ve been walking circles while I read, but that day I couldn’t see through the grief so I just let myself sob. And ask Why? Why now? Then in a not-audible but still distinct voice, I heard God say, “This is My gift to you. Go write.”

On the surface, the gift felt like a great, gaping hole and looked like a goodbye. Tension that had wound its way deep into my heart. Closure I’d rather delay.

But this past year has taught me that raw unlocks my words, and I have many I need to write. This grief-gift is generous, kind, and impeccably arranged. It’s God’s more-than-enough equipping me for something I feel far under qualified to do.

It’s God’s more-than-enough equipping me for something I feel far underqualified to do (Twyla Franz quote).

In the soul wrestlings that followed, clarity on another question I’d been evading. More gift.

Next, a rearranged day, unexpected encouragement, and God-timed nudges. More gift.

And now, a chance to talk to you directly. More gift.

Because maybe you’re in your own kind of wrestling and it doesn’t seem like a gift yet. It feels hallow. Unfair. Beyond redemption.

You’re looking up at a gray sky as if it mirrors the expanse of your hopelessness. You don’t have the strength or a solution—only spilled tears and whispered prayers.

Never-Failing, Forever Love

May I be a friend in your corner, reminding you that God is with you. Right here, holding your hand as you let go of your lack. Extending His more-than-enough.

Psalm 53:8 tells us God’s love is kind, never-failing, and forever. Let’s read it as a declaration.

“I put my trust in His kind love forever and ever; it will never fail.”
The Voice

We can trust because God is constant and good. No matter what squeezes or delays, what lies before or behind, what rips away our own enoughness so we can walk in His.

Really, I shouldn’t be surprised that this verse would link with what a few neighbor-friends and I have been learning in Jennifer Dukes Lee’s study for It’s All Under Control (aff): “When you step out in trusting obedience to God, you let go of control.”

Trust lets us receive the wild, unconditional way God loves us.

Trust invites us to obedience before our questions are quieted.

Trust grows gratitude that can stand in the middle of the mess and say God is still good.

Trust trades our not-enough for God’s abundantly-able.

I want so desperately for you to know the tender way God holds you. Catches every tear that slides from the corner of your eye. Yearns for you to trust Him with the pieces that don’t make sense yet.

(You Don’t Have to Be Enough Because) God is Faithful and Abundantly Able

You might not see the results of your surrender, now or ever. But God is faithful. Look behind you and trace the way He’s been there before and it will help you trust that He’s here right now too.

He’s the kind of God who writes beauty into the hardest parts of our stories. Works tirelessly on our behalf. Redeems all things in time.

Maybe your next step is to pick up a pen and one of those journals you’ve never written in and start thanking Him. It’s a lesson King David taught us well. Throughout the Psalms, we hear his praise ring loud, and often his gratitude hinged on the word nevertheless. David knew God’s nature in a way only possible when you clock a lot of hours together.

When the road gets rough, we tend to pull away from God. I encourage you to lean in instead. Talk to Him honest. Ask Him your unorthodox questions. Sit with the silence. Leave knee imprints on the carpet.

Then tell your story—the one you’re living now—about you not being enough but God being abundantly able. As Becky Beresford writes in her soon-releasing book, She Believed HE Could, So She Did: Trading Culture’s Lies for Christ-Centered Empowerment.

Power is present as we share our honest stories, when we let others know we are not enough, and we never want to be—not when there is One who is more than enough for all. With every declaration of God’s ability to redeem our struggles, we offer up our lives as a glorious retelling of the good news.

God doesn’t have to be so very good to us, but He is. Even when we can’t see it yet.

Let’s pray.

God, it’s freedom and grace that I don’t have to be enough. Thank you for being trustworthy, kind, and good. Help me to lean on your more-than-enough, today and every day.

Just a friend over here in your corner,

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