{"id":65280,"date":"2026-02-27T14:35:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?post_type=sermon-illustrations&#038;p=65280"},"modified":"2026-02-27T14:35:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:35:02","slug":"never-good-enough","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/never-good-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"Never Good Enough"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>&#8220;Perfectionism confers some magical superpowers like high standards, strong work ethic, reliability, and deep care of others. But gone awry it can subject us to a powerful riptide of I should do more, do better, be more, be better. We might look like we\u2019re hitting it out of the park, but we feel like we\u2019re striking out. For those of us who struggle with it, perfectionism is a misnomer: it\u2019s not about striving to be perfect. Instead, it\u2019s about never feeling good enough.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Preaching Angles: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>God\u2019s Acceptance of Us: Romans 15:7; John 1:12; Eph 2:8-9<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No Condemnation: Romans 8:1<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>God\u2019s Love: Rom 5:8, 1 John 4:19<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>God Singing Over Us: Zeph 3:17<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Forgiveness: Heb 8:12, 1 John 3:1<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3368,3660,4010,4624,4910],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-65280","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-acceptance","tax_ctp_tags-condemnation","tax_ctp_tags-forgiveness","tax_ctp_tags-perfection","tax_ctp_tags-self-condemnation"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Never Good Enough - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/never-good-enough\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Never Good Enough - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8220;Perfectionism confers some magical superpowers like high standards, strong work ethic, reliability, and deep care of others. 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