I have been a fan of Elevation Worship for a few years now. If you are, too, then you know they’ve recently put out a new album. I thought I had listened to every track on it until I saw them in concert this week and heard them do the song “Here Again” live.
I don’t know if I listened to this before and just didn’t catch the words or what, but I do know this:
I. Cannot. Get. These. Lyrics. Out. Of. My. Head -
“I’m not enough, unless You come
Will You meet me here again?”
And this morning during my #DeckDevotional time, I realized why. There is a lot packed into those two short lines that God wants to make sure I understand.
Let’s start with the first half of the first line: “I’m not enough.”
That’s something, isn’t it? The first line of the chorus has us admitting that we are not enough in and of ourselves; we’re not self-sufficient; we can’t do this alone; we’re lacking.
That requires humility; a great deal of humility. That requires brokenness. That requires an honest look at ourselves, and admitting that we fall short of perfection. We’re not naturally humble, broken people, so that’s not always easy. But, it’s necessary. If we can’t come to terms with the fact that we’re not enough in our flesh, the second half of this line holds no power.
The song gives us about one breath before that next half-line: “unless You come.”
There’s a few things we can pull from this, but the foundation of them all is the understanding that God has the power and authority to be, within us, all that we could possibly need. It’s the idea that God can - and does - change the fact that we are not enough by being enough within us.
So unlike the first half of this line where we are acknowledging what WE are not, in the second half of the line we’re acknowledging all that HE is.
It doesn’t matter how much I’m not if I know how much He is.
Now, that last line: “Will You meet me here again?”
My mind is being blown all over again as I type this out because there is so much to be drawn from this line, and the lyrics as they come back together!
In this second line there’s humility and the readmission of everything packed into that first line. It’s the humble request for God to come be everything we are not - again - because we can’t do it without Him this time anymore than we could do it without Him last time.
Here’s the thing! If we don’t accept what the first line of these lyrics say, “I’m not enough, unless You come” - we would never ask this question. Never. We wouldn’t see the need for God to meet us where we are, and be everything we’re not, if we thought we were enough on our own.
And even if we did ask the question for some reason, we would never allow God to come actually be what we’re not. The pride of our flesh couldn’t bear that. Humility must be ruling within us for the question of, “Will You meet me here again” to be something we’d allow our lips to utter.
So where’s the “here” God is meeting us at? In our weakness. In our brokenness. In our inadequacy. In our need. In the areas we’re lacking. That’s the “here.” And if you don’t first admit you have those areas, you’ll never see a reason to ask God to meet you there.
I planned on starting something new in light of what God showed me through these lyrics. Before I lead worship tonight, I was going to listen to this song, and just lift up the words I’ve written about in prayer. I may know and acknowledge that God gave me the gifts I have, but if I’m not walking in the Spirit, those gifts aren’t enough at all.
I thought to myself that it was something I’d like to do before every time I lead worship, or teach. Turns out, God needed to humble me just a little bit more…
Because what about everything else? The truth is - I don’t need to be leading worship or teaching to make the idea behind those lyrics my prayer. I don’t lead worship or teach every day and yet, my soul should be shouting these lyrics to the Lord every single morning.
I am not enough in and of myself to bring God glory in any way, on any day, if I do not have the Holy Spirit reigning in my heart. Forget leading worship and teaching - I can’t love my family right, I can’t say anything of value in this blog, I can’t be a good friend, I can’t even be poured into by other people.
I’m not enough unless God meets me in the middle of my imperfection to be within me all that I’m not.
You are not enough unless God meets you in the middle of your imperfection to be within you all that you are not.
Your spouse is not enough unless God meets them in the middle of their imperfection to be within them all they are not.
Your kids are not enough unless God meets them in the middle of their imperfection to be within them all they are not.
Your friend is not enough unless God meets them in the middle of their imperfection to be within them all they are not.
Your pastor is not enough unless God meets him in the middle of his imperfection to be within him all he is not.
I talk about Jesus' disciple Peter a lot, but he comes to mind in an unavoidable way here. This guy got it wrong his whole walk with the Lord yet, when the Holy Spirit poured out over him, he become more than he ever was before and preached two sermons that brought 8,000 people to salvation.
I’m not sure where you are with the Lord today. I don’t even know if you have a relationship with Him or not. What I do know is that it is the most beautiful thing to realize that you’re not enough without Him because when He meets you where you are and becomes everything you’re not - you become more in Him than you ever thought possible.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. [2 Corinthians 12:9]
Trust me. That truth is the only reason I am where I am, getting to do what I do.
~ Alyssa
P.s. If it would help you hear more of my story as it relates to this post, I'm happy to share! There's nothing better than recounting God's goodness. Get in touch with me here >>
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