Close the Box

If you are an avid reader, you know my word for this year is secure. As the new year arrived, I welcomed security into my life. I said goodbye to my insecurities, or so I thought.

See, it wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be. It’s not like I could take all my insecurities, all the things I don’t feel good enough to do, and shove them in a box, tape it up, mark it “INSECURITIES- DO NOT OPEN” with a big, black marker, and hide it away in storage. No, unfortunately my insecurities are in a wide open box inside my mind. And often certain ones fall out of that box and seem to grow legs. Then they run around my mind, haunting it like white-sheeted ghosts at Halloween.

Now I know I am not the only one with little wicked ghosts running around in my head. I think I would be safe to say, anyone reading this has insecurities they have to deal with. None of us feel good enough all the time. Often, that ghost doesn’t just tell us we’re not good enough, he also tells us we’re the only ones not good enough. Well, I’m here to say that ghost is a LIAR!

Because 1) you aren’t the only one not good enough, and 2) a certain someone has made you good enough. Now wait, you say, those two things are contradictory. Yes, I know but let me explain.

First, none of us is good enough. Nobody is best at everything. I can hear you now, well so-and-so is. Every time I see her she looks beautiful, her children are so well behaved, she makes the best food, she always wins every game we play, she has the perfect marriage, perfect body, perfect home and family….. the list goes on and on. But I promise you her life is not perfect. Maybe you need to get to know her a little better, because I can guarantee her life is no where near perfect and just like you she has ghosts in her head telling her she needs to try and be perfect.

We all run around trying to be perfect- for what? Because we feel we need to earn love? Earn our husband/boyfriend’s love? Earn respect of our friends and relatives? Earn the love of God? We are trying to prove to that little ghost that we can be enough in every aspect for everyone else. That brings me to point #2.

No, we aren’t good enough or worthy. But nothing we can do will make us good enough. You’re thinking, okay, why am I reading this then? There’s no hope, what’s the point? Aha! But there is hope! Someone else has made us worthy. Someone else has made us good enough! We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:10) God already made us holy and good enough by giving us Jesus. When Christ died on the cross, he was making us righteous and worthy- every single one of us. That means we don’t have to sacrifice anymore. We don’t have to constantly strive to be enough. We don’t have to try and be perfect. For by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:14) Through one ultimate sacrifice of the body of a man named Jesus, we have been made perfect. And not just for awhile, that verse said FOREVER. We never have to worry about not being good enough. It just said we have been made perfect forever. Wow.

You say, but I make so many mistakes. God knows we make mistakes, He created us didn’t He? That’s the whole reason He gave us Jesus, because He knew without Him we would never be worthy. God couldn’t stand the thought of spending eternity without all the ones He loves so much. Because of the one sacrifice of Jesus, our mistakes are forgiven. Jesus said, “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:17) Once we realize our mistakes and ask God to forgive us, bam! Just like that God forgives us and remembers those mistakes no more. We are the ones who take those mistakes and turn ourselves into failures, claiming we must somehow earn God’s love. But God doesn’t even remember those mistakes anymore. He doesn’t want us to keep sacrificing and trying to earn His forgiveness and love. And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary. (Hebrews 10:18)

So every time one of those ghosts climbs out that box in your mind to haunt you, remind him of the sacrifice already paid for you. Tell him he’s right- you weren’t good enough, but now you are. Tell him that you don’t need to earn God’s love because He gives it freely. Tell him thanks to Jesus, you are righteous, holy, good enough, worthy and perfect- forever. Then shove him back in that box and close it.