One Step Further
It's true, God does demand perfection. And we all know it. We really do.
That's why you can become trapped by what's not right in your life and live an entire lifetime feeling shame. That's why you can spend your entire life striving for more and never feeling satisfied. That's why everything of this world that doesn't work, that won't give justice, that just isn't fair, is everything that doesn't sit right, with you. Because God demands perfection.
And you know it.
For your desire to make yourself right, along with His standard, they collide. They collide as having been two arch-rivals from of old. As having locked arms in a stand-still. And never shall the two move forward as comrades, ever. Never shall God's perfect standard be satisfied in comradeship with your one life striving to reach His standards. Ever.
And you know it.
There is no way to live up to God's standard. You know it. There is no way on your own. So, as designed by God, you fall into despair. And either you give up on seeking for the Way because you don't care, or you give up on striving your way because you do care.
For striving must cease for seeking to begin.
And life is all about seeking, not striving.
God wants relationship with you. The Almighty God of the universe desires relationship, with you. The kind of relationship that is found in the seeking, not in the striving. The kind of relationship that is life, all life.
Relationship? Pure, complete, intimate relationship? How can a holy, perfect God have relationship with an unholy, imperfect people? For you desire to be made right with Him. Really, you do. We all want the same thing - to be right with God, to be in relationship with God. To be made right. Acceptable. Complete. We do. So God made the way possible. Within the impossible, God made a way.
Christ Jesus is the Way.
For the perfection you know you must have, in order for you to be made right with God, it is only possible one way. The Way. Through Christ Jesus, Who took the punishment for your sins to the grave, once for all. Who rose victorious over death, once for all. So that you could be made right before God, so that you could have life, once for all. He did that for you. Because He knows you cannot attain it, in your striving you cannot attain it. And He knows that you know that. But knowing you cannot must then go one step further. For life to happen, it must. So He simply waits for you to take that one step further. For you to acknowledge your need, for you to say, "Yes, Lord, I need You." For you to receive, Him.
It's all up to you.
So, will you acknowledge your need, and stop? Will you see your desperate state, and stop? Right where you are, will you stop?
Will you stop your striving, and start seeking, Jesus?
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"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." - Acts 16:31
"Jesus answered him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.'" - John 3:3
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." - Matthew 7:7