It’s Friday…But Don’t Expect Perfection

Trials come, and we plead for relief. Circumstances oppress, and we pray for deliverance. Health, relationships, work, and just about everything else in our lives grow difficult, and we ask God to straighten them out. We don’t like the pressures of life, and we lift every anxious thought to Him, as we should. But we forget a guiding principle: 

Hardship is part of the program. It increases and strengthens us further in our maturity. There are things that God wants to do with us that cannot be done in a perfect environment.

“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons.” (Hebrews 12:7)

Perhaps we may view discipline as God remedial recourse for believers who have gone far astray. But it is more universal than we like to think. It comes not only to those who have failed, but to those whom God is preparing for greater success. It’s what all good fathers do for their children, and it’s what our Heavenly Father does for us.

Only those who are already perfect can avoid the trials that God allows – which means no one can. The trials will come, and God may let them stay for a while.

We don’t like pain. We ask God to take away every reminder that we live in a broken world, but He won’t do it. We will live out our days with some scars, or sometimes with open wounds. God knows we cannot become His instruments of His grace otherwise. We can’t even learn grace for ourselves until He puts us in great need of it.

If we are to represent our merciful Father in a broken world, we must actually live in that broken world. We must know the needs that require mercy, and we must know them from experience. There is no other way.

How often do we ask God to clean up every messy area in our lives? How often do we ask Him to brighten every dark corner or dress up every shabby appearance in us? It’s okay to ask Him because such concerns are His concerns. But Don’t Expect Perfection.

The perfect world we crave is for a future glory, not for now. Ease and comfort are not usually His prescription for us, because they will not prepare us for our glorious future. No, God will leave us reminders of brokenness to serve as reminders of His grace. Let’s endure His reminders well.

Have a wonderful weekend. Make it better by worshiping The Lord with those who have learned and are learning to suffer well because they know the best is yet to come.

All For Jesus – Nothing More, Nothing Less, Nothing Else.

“He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, The King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” (1 Timothy 6:15b-16)