In this series, Charles Stanley delves into the concept of inadequacy and how it surfaces in the lives of believers. Feeling inadequate is not a sin but a natural part of our spiritual journey. This episode explores how feelings of inadequacy can lead us to deeper dependence on God and reliance on His power rather than our own. You’ll learn that inadequacy can be transformed into a powerful motivator that drives us toward God, enables His Holy Spirit to work within us, and ultimately helps us realize our full potential in God’s plan.
Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, December 9th. The Holy Spirit empowers every Christ follower who learns to depend on His strength. Stay with us to discover how you can experience this power in your life today.
SPEAKER 02 :
What does God say about inadequacy? What does the Word of God say about adequacy, inadequacy? Can any good come out of it? Is it wrong to feel inadequate? No. Is it a sin to feel inadequate? No. Is it absolutely, necessarily feel inadequate? No. Is it going to happen? Yes. They’ll never reach a stage in your life where you will never feel inadequate about something. So is it good or is it bad? Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not so good. Depends on how you respond. And so when you look through the Scriptures and you see what God did here and you see how God worked in this person’s life and that person’s life, in light of all this, we say, well, I don’t want to feel inadequate. Well, you go into it at times. But the question is, how do you turn that feeling of inadequacy into adequacy? That is a sense of confidence, a sense of assurance that whatever you have to do, you’ll prove to be adequate. Wherever you have to go, God will get you there. Whatever God wants to achieve in your life, you will be able to achieve it because of your relationship to Him. So, what is it today that you feel inadequate about in your life? What is it that you’re feeling? Well, you know, if I could just, if I could just handle this. If I could just learn a better way. If I could just, if I just knew how to handle my finances. If I just knew what to do about my children. If I just knew how to handle this relationship that I desire. If I just knew how to deal with my job in a way that I could be acceptable. In other words, all of us have those things in life we have to deal with. So, will we be defeated by inadequacy? Or will we learn the secret, learn the key? Will we be able to look beyond our inadequacy to the adequacy of the Christ who lives within us? Very important that we understand that. Now, so the question comes. Naturally, we’re going to feel inadequate. And the question is? But can I feel adequate legitimately without being prideful, egotistical? Can I feel the sense of adequacy in a way that I don’t miss God’s blessing in my life, don’t miss His purpose in my life? Yes, you can. So let’s think in terms not only, listen, of the fact that it can be a barrier, but it can also be a blessing in your life. Well, how can it be a blessing? Let’s think about it for a moment. How can you and I be blessed by feeling inadequate? Well, number one is this. Listen, the blessing of inadequacy, the first thing that happens is it drives us to God. When you and I are believers, those of us who are believers, when we feel inadequate, our normal, natural response is to do what? It drives us to Him. We pray more. We get into His Word. We begin to understand Him more. We rely upon Him more. We call upon Him more. That is, we get to know Him on a level and in a way that probably we had not known before. And remember this, anything that drives you to God is good. Therefore, inadequacy is good for me when it drives me to God to a deeper relationship, a deeper understanding, a greater love for His Word. Whatever drives us to God is good for us no matter what it is. So, where on the one hand inadequacy can be a barrier, it can also be a blessing, listen carefully, if I respond in the right fashion. Therefore, when I feel inadequate, what do we do? We go to God, because that’s the way He builds a sense of godly adequacy within us, that whatever He calls us to do, we’ll be able to do it. Well, there’s a second blessing, I think, here, and that’s simply this, and that is that it relieves us from the burden of trying to do things in our own strength. Now, think about it. It relieves us of the burden of trying to do things in our own strength. God doesn’t intend for us to live out of our own energy and strength, but out of His. Therefore, if I understand that and recognize that my inadequacy is legitimate, because that’s the way I feel about this situation, and recognize I don’t have to do this in my own strength. And there is a burden in facing situations and circumstances when you feel inadequate, but remember, Listen, if we recognize that He will be in us to meet every single possible need that we have, then you know what? My feelings of inadequacy can be turned into a sense of adequacy. Because He doesn’t want us living this frustrated, anxious kind of worried life. He doesn’t want us living under some cloud of burden. But it relieves us of the burden of trying to do things in our own strength, which oftentimes ends up in failure. So ask yourself the question, what is it that you’ve been dealing with that you’ve been thinking in terms of what I can do and what I have and how I can manage this? What we do is we turn our feeling of inadequacy to a sense of adequacy because now we’re looking to Him. We’re looking to Him to be our supplier. We’re looking to Him to work in our life. We’re looking to Him to be what we can’t be, what He never intended for us to be. God never called any person, for example, one example, to preach the gospel in his own strength. He didn’t call us to serve Him in any way in our own strength. So therefore, we don’t have to fret and worry about it. Whatever God calls you to do, He assumes full responsibility to enable you to do it. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be in God’s character to do otherwise. So that is the second blessing. Takes away the burden, drives me to God, takes away the burden. Then there’s a third thing. And that is it motivates us, listen, motivates us to live and work in the power of the Holy Spirit. Now think about this. What are the things in your life that are just sort of commonplace that you just do and you never stop to think? I need the Holy Spirit to enable me.” Isn’t it oftentimes when we sort of get desperate, we get driven to God? He wants us to live every single day of our life, listen, dependent upon, trusting in, relying upon, believing in, and listen, being able to draw from this source of divine, inexhaustible energy, wisdom and knowledge, everything we need to do what He’s called us to do. So therefore, our feelings of inadequacy can be turned into adequacy when I realize He’s not expecting me to do this in my own strength, but He’s expecting me and provided a way for me to depend upon the Holy Spirit. Do you realize that you cannot live the Christian life apart from the Holy Spirit? Therefore, you will never feel, you won’t even feel godly adequacy until you’re willing to trust Him, to trust the Holy Spirit to do in you and through you what God never intended you to try to do yourself. So, one of the blessings is this, it motivates us. Feeling inadequacy motivates us, not only drives us to God, motivates us to rely upon the Holy Spirit and to depend upon Him. Another blessing is this. Our inadequacy enables God to, listen, it gives Him the opportunity to demonstrate what great things He can do with so little. Somebody says, now you’re talking my language, that God’s going to take me and do something with me. Well, think about this. You remember what Moses said when God spoke to him at the burning bush? Who am I? Shepherd. And then when he spoke to Gideon, you remember the angel said, oh, valiant warrior. That’s how he got introduced. And then what did he say? Who am I? The least of the families. And so when David, for example, was sitting before the Lord, the scripture said, he said, so the same thing, who am I that you’ve brought me from the sheep field? And now here I am. All of us probably have some sense of that feeling. But think about this. Here, the servants of God, who were they? They weren’t significant people. And the awesome thing about a loving God is this. He takes the most unexpected, seemingly the most talented, the least talented and the least gifted people oftentimes and does the greatest work through them. God has a unique plan and a unique purpose for your life. He has the Holy Spirit, He’s provided the Holy Spirit in you for you. God’s plan for your life’s not like anybody else’s plan, perfectly like theirs. And now He has given you the awesome opportunity to become and to achieve. Listen, to achieve and become the person He has planned you to be. Therefore, what we think, for example, is sort of a mistake. Well, God, why would you choose this? And why don’t you choose that? And why don’t you choose somebody who’s more this? Let me ask you a question. How many of you remember your high school years, or let’s say your senior year, when they were giving out all the superlatives? The one who was the most likely to succeed, and the one who was the best looking, and the one who was the best dressed, and the one in the highest grade. In other words, all of those things. You know what? For the most part, you don’t know where any of those folks are. Most of the time, teenagers choose who they think are going to be the heroes in life, and nobody ever hears about them. You know what God says? He chooses the most unlikely things. When Jesus asked with the five thousand who were hungry, and He said, find us something to feed them with, and He said, we’re so far away and it’s too late. They finally came up with five loaves and two fishes. Remember what they said? They said, but what is this among so many? What’s five loaves and two fish among so many? I’ll tell you what it is. When five loaves and two fish get in the hand of Jesus, it could feed the whole world if He chose to do it. And so what we do, we make judgments on the basis of our sight. We must make judgments on the basis of, listen, of the plan of God, the will of God, the promise of God, the power of God, the availability of God. Listen, don’t underestimate yourself. You say, well, if I were more educated and if I were more this and if I were more that. And you know Dwight L. Moody, he was such a poor person when it came to being eloquent from the perspective of some instructor and some teacher somewhere. Everything about him people criticized. God transformed millions of people’s lives through that man. God takes the most unlikely people. So therefore, He can do the same in your life. You say, oh, now, now, wait a minute. You could give me all kind of excuses why God couldn’t use you. I can give you one excuse why He can. Because God can use anybody who’s willing to be used by Him no matter who you are. And when I think about, for example, my grandfather, nobody knew George Washington Stanley. But you know what? Did God use him? Yes, He did. Used him to set the course of my life. And so, you’re a grandfather, grandmother, you think, well, you know, how can God use me? Don’t tell God what to do. Just make yourself available to Him and watch Him work. God is willing to work in your life. So God can take the most unlikely things and do the most fantastic work. The biggest problem is we accept our inadequacy, we sort of take possession of it, and we claim it, and we go through life making excuses for not doing what God’s called us to do, making excuses so therefore we don’t answer God’s call because we’ve already convinced and persuaded He can’t. Let me ask you a question. Is there a single one of us who would say there’s some things God can’t do? No. There’s not a single thing God cannot do. Don’t underestimate your potential. And so, you see, when you begin to realize that God can take you, a conversation from you, the way you’re living in front of somebody else, the job that you have, whatever it might be. He can take you in His hand. He can create something, a circumstance, a situation. He can use you in ways that you will never know. Or He can use you in ways that will absolutely amaze you. Because He takes great delight in doing what? Using those things that are oftentimes seemingly of little importance. Then of course, for example? What happens is when you and I come to Him with feelings of inadequacy, that’s when He, listen, enables us to sense our greatest potential. You won’t sense your greatest potential as long as you think I can handle it. I got it together. Trust me. It’s when we feel very inadequate that what? Then we begin to sense our greatest potential. Lord, I don’t think, I don’t feel capable. But if you say, do this, this is what I’m going to do. And I’m going to trust you, God, to do through me and in me what you promised and what you said in your words you would do. I don’t feel adequate. And there’s nothing wrong with telling God you don’t feel adequate. Remember, it’s not a sin to say it. And it’s not a sin to acknowledge it. The sin is using it as an excuse for not being obedient to God. Then, of course, think about this. We allow God to receive all the glory and the praise when we recognize it isn’t what we do. What you and I do is this. When we acknowledge our inadequacy, watch this now, when we acknowledge our inadequacy in the process of being obedient to God, remember, when we acknowledge our inadequacy in the process of being obedient to God, He gets all the glory. Because we’re not going to take credit. Because we know that we could not, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, we could not. Therefore, He gets all the glory, all the praise, and all the honor. And what happens is, in our sense of inadequacy, we don’t use that as an excuse to escape our responsibility. We choose to follow Him obediently. And in the process of being obedient, He receives the glory and the honor because we are fully persuaded that within ourselves we’re inadequate. He gets the glory. It’s when people do something or make some performance or follow God in some area. And they say, well, here’s the reason I was able to do that. Well, you know what? You just lost it, brother, if that’s your attitude, because the attitude is humility. None of us could do or can be what we ought to be and to do apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. Once you’re persuaded of that, then you position yourself to be fully, maximally used by God. And that’s what He’s looking for, people who don’t feel adequate, and people who have a humble spirit to say, God, I can’t, but You can. People of faith who are willing to give not an excuse, but a commitment, Lord, whatever You want me to do, however You want me to do it, that’s what I’m willing to do. Now, one of the blessings of inadequacies. It gives me the awesome capacity to walk in contentment and joy and peace for the simple reason, listen, with a quiet spirit we can go about our life feeling inadequate, yes, but every situation and every circumstance we are confronted with, in that moment, I can say, thank you, Father. This is what You require of me. You will provide everything I need in order to do it, in order to accomplish it, in order to be able to walk right down the center of Your will no matter what. So all of us are going to feel inadequate at times. The issue is will you use it as an excuse or will you turn it into a moment of competency and adequacy and assurance and confidence? that is based on your personal relationship to Jesus Christ and your total dependence upon Him. That’s when inadequacy becomes a blessing. Because what you do, I’ve given you seven reasons that it can be a blessing. No matter what, it can be a blessing if you’re willing to allow Him to work in you and you depend upon the Holy Spirit to do it through you. And somebody says, all right, now what’s the first step? What do I do? Okay, I got the message now. I’m inadequate. I want to be adequate. What do I do? So, I come up in this situation. Maybe somebody, let’s say, for example, you walk in this situation and you know God wants you to share your testimony to somebody. It’s just, what happens is the Spirit of God says to you, they’re ready. Here’s what you do. You acknowledge, oh God, I feel so inadequate to do this. That’s it. You acknowledge your inadequacy. Not wrong. Secondly, you say, Father, this is what You want me to do? I’m trusting You to be true to Your Word. You said You would make me adequate in Christ Jesus. You gave me the Holy Spirit. He’s living in me. Now, it’s His responsibility to enable me to know what to say, how to say it, and the spirit in which to say it. So, what you’ve said is, I do feel inadequate. And Lord, I’m trusting you to make me adequate for this situation. And then the third step’s real simple. You take a step. You step into the opportunity and you let God prove Himself absolutely adequate and to prove you adequate in reliance upon Him. You say, how do I know that’ll work? Try it. Just try it. Because you see, God delights in proving Himself in your life and mine. He delights in that. So your feelings of inadequacy, you have to decide, am I going to let them deter me, be a barrier to me, cheat me, deprive me out of God’s plan, His best for my life? Or am I going to take advantage of my feelings of inadequacy and my being inadequate? and watch Him work His awesome work in my life.” Here’s what’ll happen. You will begin to experience situations and circumstances in your life that over and over and over again you’re going to see God. You’re going to watch Him work in your life. You’re going to see the results. That’s what Paul was thinking. He was seeing results. But the key is this. You look beyond your adequacy to the adequacy of Jesus Christ who promised to be all that you need in every circumstance of life. That’s the way you live with peace and contentment and joy and confidence, even in the midst of your awareness that you’re inadequate. Amen? Father, we pray the Holy Spirit will sink these truths into all of our hearts. For you know, we all need them daily. Those circumstances, those situations that really challenge us. And so we ask today that the Holy Spirit would remind every single one of us. We’re your vessels, your tools, through whom you desire to demonstrate your awesome power. In Jesus’ name, amen.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for listening to part two of Inadequacy, a Barrier or a Blessing. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
