a lot like Jesus.

Sometimes the devil sounds a lot like Jesus, telling me I’m not enough…

I adore Ben Rector’s music, but the first time I heard this line I almost turned the song off. How could the devil sound like Jesus? That’s the trick though, isn’t it? The devil puts just enough truth in his pile of lies that his words are easy to fall for. Think of Eve in the Garden of Eden. The serpent tells her, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat from any of the trees in the garden’?”” (Genesis 3:1, emphasis mine) No, God did not tell Eve that she couldn’t eat from any of the trees. In fact, God didn’t tell Eve anything about the trees – that info was relayed to her through Adam. The serpent makes it seem like he is taking the words of God and giving them to Eve, but that isn’t the case. So too in our day the devil can sound a lot like Jesus, but that begs the question, does Jesus ever tell us that we aren’t enough?

Most definitely not. Jesus can and does encourage us to be more, to be holier, nicer, more gentle, more loving, but that does not mean that we are not enough. Just like God told Adam that there was only one tree he couldn’t eat from and Satan twists those words, Satan twists the words of Jesus in our own hearts. So I’m glad I didn’t turn the song off because Ben has it right: sometimes the devil sounds a lot like Jesus. Sometimes we hear God tell us that we can be more, but what we internalize is that we aren’t enough, and Satan preys on that.

Ben goes on,

But I don’t believe it, no, no, but I can feel it. And I need You so, yes I need You so.

When we take a breath to think and pray, we don’t believe that God is telling us we aren’t enough, but we can feel it – we feel Satan preying on us, which is why we need God so much. Ben continues with some of the truest words that have ever been sung about being a Christian,

I believe that there is someone watching over me
And I believe that is enough
‘Cause I believe it don’t make it easy
So I need to know that You can hear me

Believing doesn’t make it easy, but rest assured that He does hear you. Be even more assured that He answers – even if it isn’t the way we hope, we trust that His answer is better and more perfect than ours.