E is for enough

I received this e-mail today. It's so good, I decided to share it since Debbie doesn't mind.

“Debbie, do you really believe I am enough?”

Yes, Lord – I think I do -

And – you are discouraged because once again you feel you are not doing anything as well as you would like.

Yes Lord.

And you think that you should get to the place where you are able to say “enough” with what you are doing with eMi, homeschooling, habit training, wiving, home keeping, friendship keeping…

Yes Lord, I think I should.

Debbie. This feeling of ‘I’m not doing enough – it’s never enough’. When you look at your own performance in your duties, “it’s not enough” will always be there, until heaven.

But why Lord?

Because the kind of “enough” you’re looking for is found only in perfection. And that, beloved, you will never be while on earth!

But You are perfect, Lord

Yes, I am.

So can’t You, through me, give perfection?

Remember you are a vessel of clay – broken because of the fall, and more broken due to life. So yes, when I shine through the cracks, it is a perfect light that shines through. But the pot itself is still cracked, Debbie.

But I certainly shouldn’t stop trying, should I? Your Words are full of ‘make every effort’, ‘excel’ , ‘add to’. Shouldn’t I be striving for excellence, Lord?
Yes, you are to be “adding” (2 Peter 1) all the time. But not for the goal of perfection in your performing the duty – or perfection in the results. The world is still fallen, Debbie, and you can’t get back to Eden. Living is not burdensome, Debbie – unless you are striving for perfection. “Not that I have already attained it, but I press on” – That’s the mindset.

Debbie, you . will. do. nothing. perfect. You are not Me. But because I am Enough – for everything, Debbie – Everything – you can find rest in your “adding to”. Your efforts are never enough, Debbie. And until you really take that to heart, you will never be satisfied with anyone else’s efforts either – at loving you, for instance. (ouch)

Lord – what if every time I feel my “it’s not enough” start to be on the tip of my thoughts, I shifted to the truth that “Of course it’s not enough, but You are always, for ever and ever, enough.”

Do you know what that’s called, Debbie? It’s called “thinking on whatever is true, right, noble, pure…” It’s setting your mind on things above. Start treasuring My enough-ness, Debbie, and you’ll find you’re no longer stewing or fretting over your never-enoughness.

But Lord – it never IS enough! In my prayer life, in my letting the tyranny of the urgent rule me, in ignoring the still small voice – it isn’t enough!

It IS enough in the sense that I Have Finished the Work for your perfeciton. It IS enough in that I Have Enough Grace to fill in all the areas you have missed. Reach for the sky, Debbie, in trusting Me to do more than you can ever ask or imagine in all these areas. I Am ENOUGH. You never will be.

Lord Jesus.
Your sacrifice was ENOUGH ot pay for ALL my sins: Yesterday. This moment. Tomorrow
Your robe of Righteousness is ENOUGH for me to enter and talk with You.
Your blood covering me is ENOUGH to make the Father smile on me the same way He smiles on You.
Your Words You spoke, the Life You lived on earth are ENOUGH for me to know – and trust – that Your Love for me never changes.
Your Love for my children is ENOUGH to keep them and present them pure, spotless, unblemished with joy (Jude)
“Enough” is what You say when I say I need MORE – more love, more time, more money, more self-discipline, more this, more that.
And “Enough” is what You wil say one day – and then there will be no more tears or partings or poverty or questions or self in the way to give and receive love.

“E” is never ever for “not enough”, which seem to be two of those words which keep trying to suck the contentment right out of me.

Lord. Thank You that truly and really no matter how I feel or think, You are ENOUGH.


Debbie BastianThe Bastian FamilyEngineering Ministries International,America Latina officeAtenas, Costa Rica