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WHO AM I? I LIKE TO BE PERFECT

Goody-Two-Shoes goes barefoot.... Will she find herself again? 

Have you ever felt like you’ll never be good enough because you’ll never be perfect? Have you felt like your mistakes disqualify you from being loved and accepted by other people? I know I have. It’s easy to look at what we can or cannot do compared to others and get discouraged, thinking that we’ll never be good enough because we’ll never be quite like them. When we start to think that way about ourselves, we might even venture to believe that’s what God thinks about us, too. That’s a dangerous place to be. God made each one of us with unique gifts and abilities so that, together, each of us can reflect His glory. The truth is that God never even intended us to be perfect on our own in the first place! He created us for relationship—perfect love. He is merciful and gracious, giving us infinite second chances and always believing the best for us. He will always forgive us as soon as we turn to Him and ask, no matter how many mistakes we’ve made in the past. He doesn’t need us to have a perfect track record to qualify for His Kingdom. All He wants is our heart.

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A LIFE FOR A LIFE: GRAPPLING WITH OBEDIENCE TO GOD

Why does Jesus tell us to be perfect when we all know that's humanly impossible?

Regret. It gets us all at times. If we’re not careful, we can allow our own feelings of regret to morph into a mindset of shame and unworthiness, crippling our future and pushing us into all sorts of unhealthy coping habits. We might even end up believing the lie that God no longer loves us or can no longer use our lives for His glory because of the awful things we’ve done in the past. Why do we do this? What’s the actual root cause behind this slow, but steady, descent into despair? How can we stop it? What’s God’s perspective, anyway? Have we ourselves been taking on too much responsibility for the outcome of our lives, rather than letting God manage that as His job? If we want the answers, we need to learn the truth so that the truth can set us free.