Do you ever get that discouraging voice in your head saying, "Try harder! Be better! Stop being a failure!" I know I did, and sometimes still do. Sometimes, the things we need to fix about our own personalities may seem overwhelming. It's a great thing to find our faults and weaknesses and fix them, but we need to come to the realization that as hard as we try, we will never reach perfection on our own.
I'm not saying that you should just let go and stop bettering yourself, in fact, we should spend alone time with God to get to know our strengths, weaknesses, and shortcomings. But we need to stop letting Satan control us with the idea that if we just try a little bit harder, we will be good enough.
If we were able to be "good" enough for God's grace and mercy, then we wouldn't have needed Christ's blood on the cross. Christ came to pay the price that we and aren't able to pay.
We are dirty, broken, useless, and downright shameful. However, we have the best lawyer in the business: Jesus Christ.
Picture this: You are seated in a courtroom and God is the Judge. On one side, we have Satan laying down all of our shortcomings, imperfections, and sins. But on the other side, we have Jesus witnessing on our behalf. There he is saying, "Judge, this one is mine. He is innocent." When God looks at you, he doesn't see your imperfections and sin; He sees you as beautiful innocent royalty. What a mighty Savior we serve! Doesn't it seem too good to be true? But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. -- (Isaiah 53:5)
We are free from sin. We are healed. Jesus has made us perfect. We need to stop trying to think that we can reach this perfection on our own. We will NEVER get there. When we fix one thing about ourselves, there will always be something else we need to fix. The list goes on and on.
Godliness isn't defined by our own "goodness" beause we aren't good. We are forgiven. A godly person realizes that his/her godliness comes from God's righteousness alone. We can't be godly by our deeds.
According to the online dictionary, the definition for godliness is: "Having great reverence for God." It isn't "being a good person."
You cannot be perfect or godly on your own. Perfection and godliness doesn't come from within YOU. It comes from HIM. So starting today, stop "trying to be good." There is no secret formula on how to get on fire for God. It's simple! James 4:8 says, "Draw near to God and he will come near to you..."You will never be "good" enough for God. That is why Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. There is NO WAY to God EXCEPT through HIM. You can't get there on your own, don't let Satan trick you into thinking otherwise.
Now, by saying all of this, I don't mean that you should stop doing good deeds. But once you draw near to God, your faith will increase, and once your faith increases, good works will be a second nature for you. You will want to do them because you will want to serve God.
Anything we do will only succeed if we go through Christ. He is all you need. So lean on HIM.
--Taleen Afsharian
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