She's Not Doing Enough

You've been doing the devotions. Saying the prayers. Showing up. And it still feels like it's not enough.

So who told you that?

In this episode, Drea gets honest about performance-based identity, the sneaky way we turn our relationship with God into a reward system without even realizing it. When you're consistent, you feel close to Him. When you slip, you carry the guilt in like you owe Him an apology just for being human.

But Ephesians 2:10 says something different.

"We are God's masterpiece."

Not we will be. Not we could be. We are, right now, as we are.

Your identity in Christ is not a scorecard. It's not something you earn on good weeks and lose on bad ones. In this episode, Drea unpacks what it actually looks like to move from obligation to overflow, from striving to simply being His.

Scripture: Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)

In this episode:

• Why consistency feels like the measure of your standing with God
• The difference between a transaction and a relationship
• What "created anew" actually means and why it's not a renovation, it's a resurrection
• How to let your spiritual disciplines flow from identity instead of toward it

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Girl, Pick Up is a podcast by EmpowerHER Spirit, created for the woman who's ready to answer the call — on faith, purpose, and the real conversations nobody else is having.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hey girl. Hey girl. Quick question. When you're doing everything right, like you're sitting and you're doing your devotions, you're praying, you feel like you're doing the whole good girl, like Christian checklist, and it still feels like you're not doing enough. Who told you that? Because it wasn't God. Girl, pick up. We need to talk.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Hey girl. Hey girl, what's up?

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Hey girl.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Hey girl, what's up?

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Oh, that's the word. Okay, so I have to be honest with you. I used to have this thing where the only time that I felt like I was actually good with God is when I was being consistent. And those are the times where I was like reading my Bible, praying, showing up, doing all the things. You know, those days I'm like, okay, me and God, we tight, we good. And then I'll have a week where I fall off. Maybe I don't open my Bible or my prayers just weren't feeling like long enough, or I just felt off. And immediately the feeling would come in of like, you're not doing enough, you're not being consistent enough. You call yourself a Christian. And I would really carry that guilt right into the next time that I sat down with God, almost like I owed him an apology for just being human, you know? And then that's when I realized I made my relationship with God into a reward system. I do this, he does that. If I show up, he's gonna bless me. And if I slip up, then he's disappointed in me. And the truth is that's not real faith, girl. That's just a transaction. And I don't think I'm the only one who's been here because a lot of us grew up in reward-based environments. You do well, you get praised, you mess up, you get corrected. And while that's not always bad, the problem here is that we end up carrying that same system into our relationship with God. And so our scripture today is Ephesians 2 and 10, and it says, For we are God's masterpiece, he has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we could do the good things he planned for us long ago. And so I need us to catch on to something in that verse. It says that we are God's masterpiece, not we will be or we could be if we get it together or stay consistent, but we are right now. And so if we think about poets that are writing a poem, they don't just throw random words on a page. Every word that they use, all the line breaks, the pauses, they're all chosen. And we have to understand that that's how God made us, He made us custom designed. And let me be clear we are not mass-produced. And so the verse goes on to say that He created us anew in Christ. And so that word created, it's the same one that's used in Genesis when God made heavens and earth from nothing. So when we accept Christ, he doesn't renovate us or patch us up and send us back out, but he recreates us. And so we have to remember in our minds that it's not just a renovation, it's not at all a renovation, actually, it's a resurrection. And so the part that I really need for us to understand is the verse doesn't say that he created us so that we could just perform for him, it says that he created us so that we could do the good things that he planned for us a long time ago. And so, what we can note is the good works were already planned before we tried to be consistent or before we had our quiet time together, before we in our minds got it right. I put air quotes right there, which means that our assignment is not dependent on our performance. Our assignment was decided before we had anything to prove. And so, what God has been showing me in this is performance-based identity is super sneaky because it doesn't always look like pride. Sometimes it'll show up as shame or self-doubt, or sometimes it even looks like imposter syndrome. And then you have times where you're sitting in church watching other people worship and you're wondering why you don't feel the same way. And so you start asking yourself, Am I even doing this right? Am I called to do this? Is this a sign that I'm not close enough to God? And what's really happening is you've tied your identity to your output. And so when your output dips, your identity dips with it. But the word says, God doesn't define us by what we do, He defines us by whose we are. And so your identity in Christ is not a grade, it's not a scorecard, and it's not something that you earn on good weeks and then lose on the bad ones. It's a gift. You are already his masterpiece on the days you crush your quiet time, and on the days that you forgot to pray, when you're winning, and when you're in the middle of the mess, when you feel it in worship, and when you're sitting in the pew completely numb, wondering if something is wrong with you, you're still his masterpiece, you're still chosen, you're still loved, and you're still called. Now let me talk about the enemy for a second, because the enemy loves to use our performance against us. He loves to say, you haven't been consistent enough, you're not qualified, and you still struggle with this, so who are you to be doing this? And those lies can sometimes land differently when our identity is built on what you do. Because if you believe your worth comes from performance, then every slip-up becomes a threat, and every inconsistency becomes evidence that maybe you're not who you thought you were. But when your identity is rooted in God and who he says you are, those lies they have nowhere to land because you're not building your worth on something that can shift, you're building it on something that was decided before the world began. And so I really want to be clear about something before we keep going. I'm not saying that consistency doesn't matter, and I'm not saying, oh, just do whatever, go out there, be lukewarm, God loves you anyway, because that's not what this is. What I'm saying is your consistency is a response to who you are, but it's not the source of it. You don't read your Bible to earn his love, you read it because you already have it and you want more of him. And you don't pray to get into good standing, you pray because you're already standing in the grace of a God who chose you. And so that shift when we have it from obligation to overflow, it happens when we actually believe that we are God's masterpiece. He doesn't love us more when we're consistent, and he doesn't love us less when we're not, he just loves us because we're his. Like that's literally the whole thing. And so if you took away one thing for this week, I just want you to notice, like, just sit and notice every time you feel like you're in good standing or out of a good standing with God based on what you did or didn't do, I want you to just catch it. Don't shame yourself, don't spiral. And then I want you to say out loud, I am God's masterpiece, not because of what I do, but because of whose I am. And I want you to say that until it starts to feel true. Because the battle for your breakthrough starts in what you believe. And if you want to go deeper on this, I wrote an eight-week devotional called His Masterpiece. It's for women who are ready to discover who they are in Christ. You can grab it on Amazon. The link is going to be in the show notes. And real quick, if you want community around this, the Empower Her Circle is where we take all of this and we actually live in it together. And so that's $10 a month. You can come be in the room. That link is also in the show notes. But before we go, I want to pray over you. Father God, I thank you for the woman who is listening right now. Lord, the one who has been measuring herself by what she does instead of who she is. Father, I ask that you speak truth over her today. Remind her that she is already your masterpiece, not just a project or a work in progress that's on probation, Father. But allow her to know that she is your masterpiece right now as she is. Father, let that truth move from her head all the way down to her heart. And Lord, for the woman who has been carrying guilt about her consistency, Father, we ask that you lift that off of her today. Remind her that your love is not a reward that she has to earn, but it is a gift that she already has. Help her to move from obligation to overflow, from striving to surrender. In Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, girl. You're not too much, you're not too little, you're exactly who God made you to be. Now walk in it. Come find us at Instagram at empowerher dot spirit. And if this episode hit, share it with a girlfriend who needs to hear it. I'll talk to you next week. Girl, pick up.