When we are called to worship a perfect God it can be hard not to want to strive for perfection as well. I am all for striving to be the best version of yourself, but I do have a problem with striving for perfection. Mainly because perfection is a goal that we can never accomplish. It is humanly impossible for us to obtain perfection in this life. So why do we set perfection as our standard? Well, when we love a perfect God, it can be hard not to want to be perfect too. I like to compare it to our earthly friendships. When we become friends with someone who has wonderful, God-like qualities we try to embrace those qualities as well. So, when we grow deeper in our relationship with our friend Jesus, it's a struggle not to give ourselves unrealistic expectations. However, God does not expect us to be perfect when it is physically impossible for us to be. He would never expect something of us when we are incapable of obtaining it. What He is looking for however, is that we are trying our hardest to be our best, Christ-like selves. It’s not about achieving perfection, but about striving for happiness in Him. We are bound to fail. It is going to happen. So when we say to ourselves “I have to be perfect because I love Jesus and He is perfect” we are setting ourselves up for failure. That feeling of failure will lead to us feeling as if we are not good enough for God, which is honestly the biggest lie we are told by the Enemy. The Enemy wants us to think that we’re not good enough for God and to turn away from Him. We can combat that lie by coming to understand that our imperfection is what makes us worthy. Our imperfections are what draw us closer to Jesus. Our human need for forgiveness and love is what draws us closer and closer to Him. Our imperfectness is what allows us to grow as close to the King as we can on earth so that when we are able to enter the Heavenly gates, we are ready for true perfection.
XOXO, MC
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