When Feeling Inadequate is a Good thing

Do you ever wonder why you can’t just get it together? Why you can’t just figure out how to exercise and eat right on a consistent basis? Or did you seriously forget to bring wipes to the park, when your child just happens to need a major diaper change? Staying on top of life with our individual weaknesses can be really hard, especially with car seats full of kiddos! But did you know that all of these inadequacies can actually be a good thing?

My Inadequacy

One of my weaknesses is keeping tracking of things. I have a tendency to move very quickly about my business. I rarely stop to think about what I am doing with the things in my life: cellphone, keys, black leggings, socks, pacifier. You name it I have lost it. Since getting married I may gotten a percentage point better but the truth is I am still searching for things on a regular basis.

A few months ago it was one of those times. I was at the grocery store looking for my cell phone, when I realized I didn’t have it. I assumed it was at home and finished shopping. But when I got home I still couldn’t find it. I looked for it for a few minutes and then asked my husband if he had seen it. He said he hadn’t but that he would call it. At that point I finally remembered to pray and ask God for help.

Our Adequacy is from God

Now I know it might be strange for some people to pray about what seems to be such a small thing. But let me encourage you friend, nothing is too small for God. God doesn’t have a certain ration for each of us. Like we can only eat one morsel a day or fill a certain quota. God is a God of abundance, not of scarcity. And God promises to help us in our weaknesses. We can never be too needy for God.

In 2 Corinthians 3:5 (NLT) it says, “It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God.”

One summer in college I was on a missions team travelling around New York City. Each day we would take multiple subways and buses to get to different churches or ministries. And one day after a particularly convoluted commute I realized I didn’t have my wallet. We had been all over and I truly felt there was no way to track my steps.

I called my mom to tell her and she said, “I am going to pray you find your wallet.” Mom, we have been all over the city. It could be anywhere. I felt very irresponsible for losing my wallet, and really that I should have been more careful. But I could tell she had faith it would be found, so we prayed. And guess what? A month later she called me and said she had received a postcard from the MTA (New York transit) and they had my wallet!

God is not most concerned with me getting my act together

Wow, this really was a lesson in faith for me. He was not most concerned about me getting my act together, but rather about me seeing my inadequacy and my need for Him.

Now you would think with such a dramatic story I would have learned to better keep track of things. But the reality is I continue to lose things even 18 years later. But I gotta say I have seen a ton of prayers answered over those 18 years! A lot! And I have seen God’s abundant faithfulness in my inadequacy.

Almost immediately after I prayed about my lost cellphone a few months ago. My husband received a phone call from my cellphone number. A man had seen the phone lying in the middle of the road on a busy intersection and had picked it up. Although there is a constant flow of traffic on that intersection, the phone was untouched in perfect condition!

He wants me to see Christ’s Adequacy

Praise God! My inadequacy had helped me once again to understand that God loves to find lost things, and He has no limits.

If there are areas of your life where you are frustrated and feel inadequate, it is an opportunity to see God work! For you to know that only God could have helped you. And only He could have turned your situation around. Your weakness may not be keeping track of things like mine. But whatever it is, it’s an opportunity.

The areas we feel inadequate are our greatest assets. Because, no matter how big or how small, they are opportunities to see God’s complete adequacy. And the wonderful news is He does not limit the number of times we can ask for help. He is an abundant God!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!