When You Don’t Feel Like You’re Good Enough

Satan painted a bullseye on your back the moment you stepped up to serve Jesus. So, no matter how you’re serving in ministry, you can expect to encounter problems. 

Fear is one of the most significant weapons that Satan uses against you. Most leaders never do what God wants them to do because they let fear stand in their way. They lock themselves in a self-imposed prison. 

In one of the most famous passages in the Bible, Moses faces a fear we commonly face in ministry—the fear of inadequacy.

You can easily split Moses’ life into three parts. He spent the first 40 years in Pharaoh’s court learning how to be somebody. He spent the next 40 years in the desert learning to be a nobody. Then he spent his final 40 years learning to be God’s somebody. 

As you already know, at the end of period two, God appeared to Moses in a burning bush, where God spoke to him and commissioned him to lead the Israelites out of slavery. 

Moses’ first response is similar to how we today often respond to God’s call: “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11 NLT).

Moses didn’t feel like he was the right man for the job. God was calling Moses to be one of the most important people in human history and set free a million people. God placed a big mission in front of Moses.

You don’t have Moses’ calling, but when God called you to serve him, you may have felt something similar to what Moses did. In fact, you may still feel it today. You may believe that you don’t have enough education or that you don’t have the right background to fulfill your calling. 

You can see the beginning of Moses’ problem with the question he asks of God: “Who am I?” The better question would have been, “Who is God?”

Moses didn’t need to be confident when God called him. God already knew all of Moses’ strengths and weaknesses when he called him to lead the Israelites out of bondage. None of that mattered to God. God’s calling wasn’t about Moses. It was about God’s plan. 

The apostle Paul understood this. He said, “We can say this, because through Christ we feel certain before God. We are not saying that we can do this work ourselves. It is God who makes us able to do all that we do” (2 Corinthians 3:4-5 NCV). 

If Moses and Paul felt inadequate, we certainly can too. I felt inadequate many times while leading Saddleback. I wasn’t competent to lead Saddleback, but God called me.

If God wants you to do something, you’ll succeed no matter what. Throughout the entire Bible, God uses unexpected people to do his work in the world. Even today, he doesn’t pick the top of the class or the star athlete. God regularly uses the inadequate to do his work.

God chose David, the youngest of his family, to become king. He picked Rahab, the prostitute, to save a nation. He chose an older widow to save the prophet Elijah.  

Jeremiah is another example. When God called Jeremiah, he responded, “I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!” (Jeremiah 1:6 NLT).

 God responded to Jeremiah in the same way he did with Moses—promising that he would be with him: “‘Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the LORD. Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, ‘I have put my words in your mouth.’” (Jeremiah 1:8-9 NIV).

God’s answer to your inadequacy is his adequacy. It doesn’t matter how little experience you have or how insufficient your ability is. God is more than sufficient for whatever he is asking you to do.  

It’s natural to feel a little uneasy and anxious when God commissions you. Otherwise, you wouldn’t depend upon him. But you never grow unless you’re stretched. If everything is easy, you’re just coasting. That’s not healthy. A healthy ministry is one you fulfill through faith. 

If God has called you to your ministry, he’ll prepare you for whatever is ahead. Trust him to do through you what you can’t do on your own.