Perfection

One of the things I enjoy most about the Give Your Witness ministry is its made up of people who desire to speak about God and His grace. We are not professionals here nor do we desire to be and while we do our best to give the reader the best possible content, there have been a number of readers who have pointed out certain mistakes made. However, when I think about the way Christ works, I am reminded that God wants people to give Him our best regardless of the amount of mistakes we make.

Think about all the great prophets and children of God in scripture and throughout history. None of these men and women were ever perfect regardless of how hard they tried. At my age and this point in my life, I understand that I will never be perfect and while I do strive to do my best, I do not put the effort forward to care what others think of my work or what I do. That’s not to say that I dislike people but I know that regardless of how hard I try, I will never please the entire world so I do not try, anymore. Trust me, doing so will lead you to many disappointments and sadness on your journey. 

Anytime I think about trying to line up to what the world expects of me, I have to remind myself that God does not see us as this world does nor does He expect what the world expects of us: “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). This scripture reminded me of a situation that occurred about a year ago when I had first began with the ministry and one of my writings, which I wrote it in a way that was more of a rant rather than an actual article, but one of the readers didn’t care for the way it was written and basically called it elementary.

Of course, most of our readers I do not know personally and I have not heard or seen anything from this particular individual, there was a part of me that wanted to say something back to him but I did not. This was not my place to do so but some of our loyal readers did it for me (and thank you to these people). My point is not to make this about me but rather, to point out how perfection is not possible and while we should do our best, we should not expect perfection and when people are piling on us for making a mistake or for our missing grammar, we should just look above and move on with people: “And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet” (Matthew 10:14).

In my recent studies of scripture, I have really focused on the idea of perfection because too many believers have the belief that their life has to resemble a set imagine before they come to God but any real believer who has studied God’s word knows that God doesn’t have a set image of what a Christian looks like. He wants us to come to Him not because we are pretty or handsome or because of our abs or smile but because our heart is sincere: “I the LORD search the heart, [I] try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, [and] according to the fruit of his doings” (Jeremiah 17:10). The next time that we think we must be perfect to embrace God, think again because God wants a sincere heart.