Good morning ladies! I hope you are enjoying this holiday season in celebrating our Savior’s birth. This is the last week of this devotional! I cannot believe we are finishing up our second devotional together and about to start a new year! Today we are reading about perfectionism. Open your bibles and read Romans 5:7-8 and 3:23 and Matthew 11:28-30.
I believe we try so hard to be perfect that we forget the difference between striving to be like Jesus and being perfect- sinless. As humans, we are born sinners because of the Fall in the garden. We are conceived by man, which makes us sinners by flesh, but we are born again by the spirt (2 Corinthians 5:17). The difference between being sinless and striving to be like Jesus can seem like a thin line, we think to ourselves “well if I am trying to be like Jesus then I need to be sinless”. Beloved, that is not how our loving God wants us. Yes, it makes Him sad when we sin, but He also knows that we will fall short everyday of that expectation, hence His mercy. We are to be perfect in Christ by being like Him, loving, compassionate, gracious, kind, slow to anger, and all His wonderful attributes. Galatians 2:16 says “yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so that we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”
Let’s discuss what we just read. I have some questions that I want you to think about, write them down, and if you’d like to comment below we can discuss them together!
- How are you tempted to idolize perfectionism?
- In what ways can we live imperfectly while still fighting sin and embracing sanctification?
- How does the gospel combat our attempts to achieve perfection? How does Jesus make a way for us to meet the standard of perfection set by God?
My sister in Christ, we try so hard to be the perfect woman, whether that’s being the perfect mother, the perfect, wife, the perfect girlfriend, the perfect sister, aunt, or whatever role you have, we place so much pressure on ourselves to be whatever it is we need to be, but are we striving to be perfect in Christ? I am also, specking to myself in this, there is no judgement on my part, I want us to ask ourselves the difficult questions so we can become like Christ. If you have any questions, please place them in the comment section below. I would love to hear from you!
I hope you enjoyed this study and decide to come back. Tomorrow, we’ll learn about Pleasure and how we can make it an idol. I hope you enjoy the beautiful sunset that was made by our loving Father and y’all have a wonderful night.