Thinner, smarter, prettier, younger, faster, better. Who is setting these standards, and who has the right to tell us we’re falling short? Marketing departments across the globe want you to believe they have the miracle product or program to help you gain ground and elevate your status, and our culture only builds that hype through a barrage of perfect imagery and fairytale stories masterfully sold through movies, media, and manipulation. You can be better! Or, worse yet, you are only valued if…. Whether it’s your clothing, skin, hair, face or body, your title at work, your relationship or family status, material wealth or service to others, it seems to be all up for scrutiny, yet the response is the same regardless: you can do or be more. It causes people to look in the mirror with shame, and it’s the root of a mental health epidemic for our youth. The resounding message is this: you’re not enough, and you better do something about it!

The saddest part is that the needle keeps moving. How is it possible that what’s “best” keeps changing? Once we start to close in on solutions, the trends, well…they trend in another direction. Beauty standards shift from Kate Moss thin to Kardashian curvy, yet both looks are impossible for the majority of women. The pendulum swings regularly from telling us which foods and workouts are best for our health, to arguing if being a powerhouse at work or at home offers the better trajectory for our kids’ future. 

The world operates in a frenzy to find the perfect plan for our utopian existence, but we should first consider if we have trusted in a perfect God. Only He is enough, and our only hope of being enough is through and with Him. Scripture tells us that God’s grace is sufficient for us, because His power is perfected in weakness (2 Corinthians 9-10).

Oddly, there is another side to this you’re not enough argument that screams another dangerous lie just as loudly. This side purports that, in fact, you ARE enough, no matter what. Playing on self-pride, ego and our flesh, this messaging adopted by the world denies that we need help, community, or a Messiah. Instead, the philosophy walks you out on a plank by yourself, assuring you of your independent capabilities, and it tempts you to jump. But, who has ever truly succeeded or flourished all on their own? While a nice attempt to squash the you aren’t enough trend, this one deceives just as much. God knew from the beginning that man was not meant to be alone; he needed a helper (Genesis 2:18) and, once sin entered, a Savior (John 3:16-17) as well. The message of you are enough quickly falls flat as soon as anyone recognizes their humanity and need for others. In essence, God created us for community with Him and others; it’s the only way we can truly thrive.

While both of these perspectives have some valid points at times, they are each flawed when taken as a whole, and there is one main reason why they both fail: whether you want to believe you ARE or ARE NOT enough, these theories each require your eyes on yourself, instead of on God and His sufficiency.

From the very beginning, Satan has used this tactic to distract and confuse humanity. With slight twists from his forked tongue, he casts doubt and creates false voids. His questioning voice can echo in our heads, leading us to wonder if we’re missing out while inviting us to believe a foolish promise of glamour outside of God’s best. He used this exact tactic with Eve in the Garden of Eden, and mankind has followed her pattern ever since.

In Genesis 3, verse 1 describes Satan as “crafty,” and the evidence shows up in the next several verses as he reels Eve into conversation, laying bait with every word. By verse 4, he uses an outright lie to ensnare her in his trap. Although God had already told Adam that they would die if they ate fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Satan assured Eve she “will certainly not die.” He then goes a step further by inviting both doubt and selfish desire into her thought process. And do you know how he does it? He gets her eyes off of God and onto herself.

“For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (verse 5).

Then, Eve, for the very first time, thought about herself and what she might be missing.  Comparison was birthed, and immediately Eve believed she was not enough. She didn’t have everything seemingly available to her, and it was holding her back from some greatness she could potentially attain. She then viewed the fruit as “pleasing to the eye, and also desirable,” and so she ate it.

Even though Eve was made in the image of God and therefore already like Him, and even though God had offered mankind dominion over all the land and animals, along with freedom to eat virtually everything, Satan distorted the lens and twisted Eve’s viewpoint. She was no longer looking at her loving Creator, her all-knowing, all-powerful, all-sovereign Provider who had given her everything to perfectly meet all of her needs. Instead, she looked at fruit and what she thought it could offer – something to fill a void that the enemy made her believe she had. But there was no need, no void and nothing held back. 

Today, Satan’s playground isn’t just this earth we live in. He lives in the reflections we see of ourselves every day. If we don’t know God’s truth and fully understand His provision and deep love for us, our mirrors can easily portray an image that causes us to linger on it, critique it and accept lies about the value, worth and beauty of what we see. We can have confidence that Satan’s biggest disappointments result from our steadfast faith and obedience to God. They leave no room for him to plant those seeds of doubt in our value.

So, instead of getting caught up in measuring our “enough-ness”, consider setting your sights on God and the fact that HE is enough. Always. Every day. Forever. And only with Him, are we filled, too. He is our portion and pleasure. No word (not even “enough) can do the same. When our eyes are fixed on Him, we see our true identity. I love how author and pastor Brennan Manning encourages: “Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.”

Lord, God, help us to tune out any other voice that tells us to measure ourselves against any standard that’s not Yours. Give us a desire for truth, and help us to hide it in our hearts to protect ourselves from the enemy’s tactics. Victory and fullness of joy are Yours, and we are in awe of how freely You give these to us. You overflow far beyond enough’s borders. Help us never to lose sight. In Jesus’ name, Amen!