9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 10 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Do you know that the more perfect I try to be the more imperfect I feel? I have always had this issue with comparing myself to others. I'm not good enough, my grades aren't good enough, my body isn't beautiful enough... I just seem to spiral into being dissatisfied with everything God does. I also have an issue sometimes with thinking I'm better than people. Today I'm realizing after reading this scripture that that is exactly what the world is training us to do. The world wants us to compare ourselves it wants us to strive toward perfection. If we aren't perfect we aren't worth it? I forgot that I grew up on God's word. Who does He use the most in the bible? He didn't use the people who were well off. He used the ones who were poor who people despised the unspeakables the untouchables. He used the vessels that were already broken. Why? Because if He used someone who seemed to have it all together how brightly would His glory shine? God wanted to make an impact on the world and let us know that it's okay to be "not perfect".
My brother quoted "Perfection is a tool used by the devil to tell us we never will be! the more we strive for perfect the more we know we are not BUT We are all perfectly imperfect... God loves us even where we are at and cherish us as his children. Never loosing hope in us as long as we never loose sight of His true self..." Why then do we strive toward being perfect by the world's standards?
Isn't it true though that the more I strive toward perfection the more I fall short? It's like dieting... the more I'm concerned with my weight the more weight I gain. The more unhappy I am with myself the less beautiful I look. Up until my ah hah moment today I thought as long as I did what the bible said and kept on keeping on I would be perfect in God's eyes and who cared about the rest. Do you realize it's totally impossible to do everything the bible tells us to do and ... God knows that? I'm not saying it's okay to go against God's word at all. I'm just saying don't try to be perfect because you wind up looking like a complete idiot.
Admit when you are wrong. Admit when you are weak. Ask God to help you in any area where you need Him.
Dear God help me to stop measuring myself up to people and stop being focused on me and my image. Help me to instead be a vessel for you no matter how broken I feel. In Jesus name Amen
2 Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.
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