I Never Asked for Perfection

 “But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:48 NIV 

Sitting in service one recent Sunday during worship my Father spoke those words to me. “I never asked for perfection.” I honestly couldn’t tell you at that precise moment what I was thinking or struggling with but that was His answer to me. But that is what we’re supposed to be according to Matthew, right? It’s one of those verses that makes any normal person throw up their hands in horror and walk off. How can I be perfect? Seriously? Be without flaws on all occasions? And not just “normal” perfect whatever that might be, but perfect “as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” Shoot me now.

Sometimes it seems everyone around me is more perfect. I’ll resist going down the comparison rabbit hole at least for this devotional but I think we all feel that way at one time or another. Maybe more times than we admit. Yet God never expected us to be perfect, He never demanded that of us. We sin. Every single one of us. I suppose somewhere out in this wide world there may be some Christians who actually think they don’t sin. They do everything according to “The Book.” In 1 John 1:8 NIV “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.” We commit sins of commission – doing things we shouldn’t and sins of omission – not doing things that we should. Maybe in a heated moment we take the name of the Lord in vain. Maybe we fail to rejoice in the trials when we know that’s what we’re supposed to do and maybe we have those days where we don’t love God with all our heart, soul mind and strength. It’s called being human.

But here’s the thing. Sometimes there is a tendency when we feel so imperfect we beat ourselves up over it. Maybe more than necessary. “Today I’m not going to…” fill in the blanks. Then you do it. !!! “What is wrong with me, I’m never going to be what He wants me to be. I can’t do it, I’m hopeless, how could He possibly love me, I’m so not worthy of it” or words to that point. What He said to me following “I never asked for perfection” was this. “You hold yourself up to an impossible standard. Me. You will never achieve that perfection, and I never required that of you.”

We exhaust ourselves trying to be flawless, mistake-free and constantly “on point” in our walk with God. Are we striving to earn what He has freely given? His Grace. He never asked for perfection, only our hearts. Remember, He didn’t call the flawless, the perfect. He certainly didn’t choose the qualified. His disciples stumbled, doubted, and even denied but they followed- and that’s all that mattered.

The picture at the top of this devotional  is Kintsugi pottery. Kintsugi pottery is a Japanese practice that mends broken pots with gold or silver so that the resulting pot is more beautiful than the one that broke. We are called to be who we are with all our cracks and imperfections knowing that God’s glory will shine through those cracks into the world around us and the gold of God’s love will mend our brokenness into something far more beautiful than it ever was. A completely unbroken, perfect vessel contains whatever it holds. Nothing gets out. But the broken one, now that’s the one, imperfect though it is, can shine the brightest!

PRAYER:

Lord, I come to you just as I am. Flawed, messy and far from perfect. Sometimes I feel like I’m not enough, like I’ll never be enough, like I’m falling short in too many ways. Help me as I lay down these burdens of perfection to remember that I don’t have to have it all together to be loved by You. Remind me that I am a work in progress and will be to the day I come home to You. Remind me that growth comes with stumbles and brokenness can still hold beauty. And let me rest in the truth that I am enough- not because I am perfect,

But because You are.

Amen