Here is a portion of an article Sandie Freed wrote for Elijah List:
Precious Believer,
I know how much bondage there is in feeling as if you are continually "missing the mark." Performance-oriented people experience difficulty resting in God, which is linked to God's grace. I spent many years believing that God was disappointed if I didn't quite measure up to His standards. I also was deceived into believing that God's blessings were linked to how well I performed – as if His blessings were dependent upon my "good behavior" or "religious performance." This false belief set me up for even more failure and disappointment. It becomes cyclical.
If we are ashamed, there is no confidence to boldly run to Him for grace and empowerment to transform. Wow! Let me rephrase that so that you understand this. Shame and guilt robs us of our confidence to run boldly into God's arms – in fact, it causes us to run away from Him!
God knows we will never be perfect. He does not desire perfection due to our own strength for that would be "deserved favor." Remember now, grace is undeserved favor. The Lord desires for us to know that He is daily perfecting us through His divine grace. To believe that "it is up to us and our own ability to become transformed" is to believe that "the finished work at the Cross was not effective".
Jesus Himself was perfect and, therefore, we are blessed and empowered to live holy through Him.
5 comments:
We always need to remember that Christ was perfect but we never will be. Your last sentence in this post sums it up.
Blessings,
Charlotte
Thanks for sharing.
Helpful words! I love the idea of running boldly to the arms of Jesus. He must smile when He sees us coming!
It really is amazing to think about the fact that all we have to do is believe. It is that simple.
Hi Karen,
So very true. There has been times when I felt ashamed to come to God because of something I did. But there is always healing and forgiveness at the cross. Thank you for sharing.
God bless,
Ken
Post a Comment