I can't tell you how many times I have heard it throughout more than 40 years of full-time ministry. It has to be one of the biggest misconceptions in all of Christianity. I've heard it in those just beginning to contemplate the spiritual, and I've heard it from long-time believers toward the end of their lives.
It usually comes out, "I'm just not good enough." To most it means, "I just can't do this, because I'm not perfect, and I have messed up."
"I'm just not good enough."
Wait a minute! Think with me about Moses the murderer, Joseph the arrogant, David the adulterer, Abraham the liar, and Jacob the deceiver. What about those possessed with demons, the woman taken in adultery, Paul the killer of Christians, or the woman at the well with five previous husbands and now shacking up with someone else?
God used all of those individuals in powerful ways in spite of and, in some cases, because of their flaws.
None of us is good enough. But, like those just mentioned, all of us can be accepted, forgiven, and mightily used by God.
But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Rom 6:17-18)
Yes, thanks be to God!
• Bruce Henderson, minister, Airport Road Church of Christ, Carson City
