Not About Perfection
“The Lord will perfect that which concerns me…” Psalm 138:8 KJV. The Amplified Bible reads, “The Lord will accomplish that which concerns me….” We are not perfect people and never will be but when we become Christians (Romans 10:9), we have the Perfect One living within us, Jesus. As we read our Bibles and study the Word of God, He changes us through the Word if we allow Him to. He makes us more like Him. Contrary to what we may believe or may have been taught we cannot change ourselves; it is Christ and only Christ that can change us. But we must be willing to be changed.
God is not looking for perfect people because He already knows; there aren’t any. There are some people who will try to make us feel like we need to be perfect. When I tried to live a perfect life, I was miserable, and I made the people around me miserable. The more I tried to be perfect the more I messed up, all because I was trying to please people. They wanted me to be what or how they thought I should be. Along the way, I realized a lot of what people try to make you do or be. They aren’t even doing themselves.
We will never be perfect as long as we are in these fleshly bodies. We will not reach perfection until we are in glory with our Heavenly Father. But as the scripture says in Psalm 138:8, He will perfect us, if we allow Him too. Most of the time when the Bible speaks of us being perfect, it is speaking of us becoming mature. It isn’t speaking about us being flawless. We all have flaws (a mark, fault or other imperfection that mars a subject or object). When Jesus chose the disciples, He chose ordinary, everyday people, people with flaws.
As I studied this, I ran across a section in my Study Bible that even talked about the flaws of the disciples. It talked about how they lacked foresight (Luke 9:12,13), they fell asleep when they should have been awake (Luke 9:28-32), tried to hold on to an experience rather than move forward to the next thing Jesus had in store (Luke 9:33-36), they were afraid to ask questions about things they really didn’t understand (Luke 9:43-45), they sought after position and privilege (Luke 9:46-48), they felt a sense of entitlement because of their connection to God (Luke 9:49,50), they wanted to literally kill their enemies (Luke 9:51-56) and they bit off more than they could chew (Luke 9:57-62). Jesus didn’t give them the boot, instead He continued to correct, teach and be an example before them. Although we may not be able to physically see Him today, He left us the Word of God. He has people in the earth teaching the Word of God so that we get a better understanding.
One of my favorite shows is The Voice, they have all kinds of people singing all types of music and there are times when they don’t choose the singer that seemingly has it all together. But instead, they choose the one that has pitch issues, the one that is a little nervous or has some other flaw concerning their singing. Although the singer may have flaws, the coach hears something in them and is willing to work with the singer to help bring out their best voice. Especially someone that did not make it the first time but took the constructive criticism given to them, worked on his or her craft and came back to try again. That says a lot! Clearly this is someone the coaches know is teachable, willing, and obedient (Isaiah 1:19) and willing to do whatever it takes to make it (Philippians 3:14).
I believe Jesus looks at us the same way and says, “ok they are not dotting every “I” or crossing every “T”, but they are sincerely trying to do what the Word of God says. They are reading and listening to the Word (Proverbs 19:20, “Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in the latter end”). They have not arrived, but they are mine and they continue to learn and grow (Phil. 3:12 AMP). God doesn’t look at the outward appearance, He looks at the heart (I Samuel 16:7).
So, for those of you waiting to become a Christian once you have everything together, it’s not going to happen. We need Him to help us. Stop waiting and accept Him today (Romans 10:9). And for those of us who are already Christians, we must continue to yield to the Word of God. We must allow the Word of God to change us into His likeness and what He has created us to be.
