Rhonnie Scheuerman’s Inspiration Station For All In Need This Morning 

Today’s column  from Author: Joyce Meyer’s Book “Perfect Love”

Perfectionism and Approval No one is Perfect, that’s why Pencils have Erasers, Author Unknown

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When Charlie was a child ,each autumn, his dad gave him a chore of racking up the leaves.   It was a difficult job for a young boy, taking hours to complete, but one he did without argument.    At the completion of his task, he would say. “Daddy you will love it”, the yard looks amazing”. Every fall, his dad had the same response at the conclusion of his yard inspection.  “It looks good son, but you missed leaves over there…and a few over there…and there at a few over there…and there are a few more by the gate”.  Charlie’s dad was a perfectionist and Charlie never felt that he measured up to his dad’s expectations. Perfectionism is a cold and sterile symptom of a legalistic mind-set. Jesus scolded the Pharisees when He said,”they tie up heavy loads, hard to bear, and place them on men’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to help bear them” Matt hew 23;4).

The Pharisees were great at making others feel as if they didn’t  measure up. This is the opposite of grace, and perhaps that is why Jesus vehemently opposed the Pharisees; behavior .  Satan is The accuser of the brethren, and he delights in trying to make us feel that we don’t measure up to God’s expectations.  God not only does not expect us to be perfect, but is  precisely because we are not and never will be perfect what he sent Jesus to  save us and the holy spirit to help us in our daily life.  If we could do it by ourselves, we would not need help.  Jesus didn’t come to make us perfect people with no flaws, but He came to forgive our imperfections  and to wipe them away in God’s sight .   We actually are perfect through Jesus, but we can never be perfect in our own performance.

Jesus did say, “Be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect, ” (Matthew 5:48) but a study of the original language reveals that He meant that we should grow into complete maturity of godliness in mind and character.  The thought of growing doesn’t  frighten or overwhelm me because it is a process that goes on all throughout our lives.  I love to learn, to change and to grow.  However, when I thought I was being commanded to be perfect right now,’  I did feel frightened  and it overwhelmed me because  I know that I wasn’t perfect and didn’t know how I ever could be.  Now I know that I will still be growing even when Jesus returns to take me to heave.  God is not disappointed that we have not arrived at manifesting perfect behavior, but He does delight in finding us growing into maturity.

Striving for excellence  motivates you  striving  for perfection is demoralizing

We are called to be excellent, but God leaves flaws in even His choicest saints so that they will always need Him.  I like to say that excellence  is not perfection, but it is taking what you have to work with and doing the best you can with it, all the while trusting Jesus to fill in the gaps – Harriet Braiker