Striving for Perfection

Success isn't about perfection. In fact, I think the most successful people would tell us that they don't owe their success to perfection, but to being willing to make mistakes.  It's easy to get caught up in our mistakes, to let them distract us from the goal, to let them convince us that we can't succeed if we can't do things perfectly. It's easy to be consumed by them, to stress about them, to let them keep us from continuing on.

Luckily, the message of the Gospel recognizes our mistakes and replaces them with Christ's perfection. To successfully submit to the Lord and embrace salvation, we have to admit that we aren't perfect and that we will never be perfect. But that's alright, because Christ is perfect and He stands in our place. In God's eyes, our success isn't based on our perfect lives. Instead, we are successful because He covers our mistakes with Christ's perfect life, and sees Christ instead of us.

We can stop striving for perfection when we accept the gift of grace. We can stop worrying about whether we are doing each little thing correctly, and instead recognize when we make mistakes, move forward, and attempt to keep from making the same mistake again. Striving for perfection keeps us stuck in a loop of disappointment and failure, but acknowledging that God covers our imperfection with grace frees us to keep going, to keep pursuing His calling on our lives.

Are you focusing too much on your mistakes and forgetting the gift of grace?

Today's Verse
Romans 8: 1-2
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.