You are enough. But do you believe it?
Australian activist, author and international speaker Christine Cane shares biblical wisdom and encouragement from her personal battle with shame.
“Everything always fundamentally comes back to women feeling like ‘I’m just not enough’. I’m just – whatever that might be – I’m not thin enough, I’m not pretty enough, I’m not smart enough, I’m not educated enough, I’m not talented enough, I’m not lucky that enough. I’m not enough.”
“I think society puts that on us, our past history puts that on us, and more often than not the voice in our head actually tells us that more than anybody else.”
This feeling of not being enough comes from shame. Shame tries to steal our identity and prevent us from fulfilling our God-given destiny. Christine elaborates,
“The nature of shame, apart from that fundamental feeling of unworthiness, is that you hide.”
Shame says that we are not enough, therefore we should hide. The same shame felt we feel was first felt by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Christine points us to Genesis 2:25 and 3:9-10.
“Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed; they knew no shame. Isn’t it interesting that God says they felt no shame. He could have said they felt no joy, they feel no anger, they felt no peace, but He used the word shame.”
“Because then right in chapter 3, we enter the fall where the Lord comes out and says, ‘Adam where are you?’ And he says, ‘I was naked, afraid and so I hid.’ I think ever since that’s what we’ve done ”
Christine explains a destructive ripple effect that shame creates in our lives.
“Instead of running to God to become all that we’re created to be, we run from Him.”
“We minimize, we hide. We’re scared that if anyone really finds out what we’re really like, what we’ve really done, or what’s really going on inside then they’re not going to like, accept or include us. We spend most of our life on this earth hiding, rather than flourishing.”
Feelings of unworthiness can creep into our lives at any moment, causing us to run and hide from our God-given purpose. But God calls us to stand firm, unashamed.
