She sat with her head down. She had her hands folded in her lap, her feet crossed, and she was hunched over in her chair. With her chin trembling she finally looked up, tears spilling from her eyes and said these three words: “I’m not okay”.
Just with the weight of having said them out loud, she seemed to exhale a bit.
The words “I’M NOT OKAY” have been repeated to me in multiple ways over the years I worked as a counselor. They’ve been whispered to me in a group therapy session, written to me in emails, and even sent as a note slipped under my office door. They’ve been said through tears when sitting and talking with a friend, and they’ve been shouted in anger. I can remember saying them to my husband one day while sitting on our kitchen counter and completely falling apart. “I’m not okay”. Many of us walk around saying these three words to ourselves over and over and over again.
These words have also been spoken by the enemy to my soul as an accusation more times that I can count phrased like this:
“You’re not okay.”
“If people knew who you really were, they would be so disappointed.”
“Try harder. Perform more. Strive. Hustle. Earn your worth.”
These words have power.
We are told early and often by society, our families, our teachers, and our leaders that we must have our act together all the time. We’re told that we must be ready to perform the tasks we’re given flawlessly, that we must have our happy mask firmly in place before interacting with others, and that we must carry on at all costs. We’re told through the words and actions of others that we must perform well to be loved.
But what about when we just can’t?
What about when the pressure to be ‘okay’ (as if there is such a thing) is too great to bear and we simply cannot put that mask on any longer?
What then?
Today, there are two fundamental truths you need to know:
1- You are not okay.
2- That is okay.
Want to know another rarely talked about but nonetheless truth?
No one is.
And if we were, we wouldn’t need a Savior.
Here’s the beautiful part:
If you have been saved by Jesus, then when He came into your life and saved you, you became HIS.
All of you.
And now, instead of you living, it’s His Holy Spirit living inside of you. When God looks at you, He doesn’t see all the mess that you think you are, He sees His perfect Son.
So although We may be broken, He is not.
Although we may be overwhelmed, He is perfectly in control.
Although we may feel defeated, He is still the Victor.
Although we are discouraged, He is our Encourager living INSIDE OF US.
The three words that the enemy tries to use to kill, steal, and destroy the gift that God has put inside of us?
You’re not okay.
The response we need to take:
BUT JESUS IS.
If you’re struggling today, feeling like you’re not enough, that you’re broken beyond repair, and that you’ll never have your act together, here’s some good news:
YOU DON’T HAVE TO.
That’s why God sent us Jesus.
You are enough because of who He is.
You are not broken, you’re loved. We get to turn to Him and let Him take our broken places and to turn them into beautiful testimony of His healing power.
And you don’t have to have your act together all the time. Our weakness is the perfect vehicle to display HIS glory.
Truth is? I’m not okay. But I’ve got a Savior who is.
And THAT is enough for me.
Thank you! Words I’ve said many times to others but so needed someone to say them to me ♡