Do you ever feel like you aren’t good enough? 

Do you ever have insecurities that pop up and keep you from moving forward with something you feel passionate about — something you even think God is calling you to?

I do.

I recently attended a writer’s workshop. Amazing writers sat all around me. 

At various points during the workshop, we were given writing prompts and time limits to create stories. Then we had to share what we wrote. Gulp…

People shared highly creative pieces of work.

I, however, did not. My brain had stopped working the moment the instructor told us to start writing.

After it was over, I promptly went to my car, and I cried. 

I wanted to give up. 

I boarded the self-doubt struggle-bus and had chosen to sit in the uncomfortable seat, the one with cracked upholstery that bit at the back of my leg every time I leaned away from the permanently stuck open window inviting the rain to shower through. 

As I rode home, I wanted to stop trying. I wanted to stop squirming, sit still in my struggle-bus seat, and let the rain pour over all of my inadequacies.

“Who needs the stress of it all, anyway. It’s so much easier to not pursue anything. Just give up,” I told myself. 

It was a low point.

In taking it all to God, He showed me that I have much to learn, not just about writing, but about life.

I talked to Him about wanting to just give up.

He showed me that sometimes that’s exactly what I need to do. I simply need to give up. 

Goodness gracious! Wait! What?

He did not mean quit, though. 

He spoke to me in a way that made me understand that when He calls me to something, and I want to quit because I don’t feel adequate enough to actually do it, I need to give my inadequacies up to Him. 

I am broken. There’s no way around that. 

However, God can still, and will, use me if I give up all of myself to Him to use. Here’s the kicker… It’s all for His glory!

Just like God told Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” 

Then Paul continued in that verse and on through verse 10: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (NIV)

I firmly believe that God can do more with our limitations than we ever could do apart from Him with our greatest strengths. 

Therefore, instead of thinking we need to quit every time we feel inadequate in pursuit of His calling for our lives, give-up! 

Give up to Him every part of who you are (weaknesses and all) to use in the way He intends… for His glory!