Perfected in Discipline

Ooh, I really don't want to talk about perfection. And being disciplined. I have a really hard time with the verse, "Be perfect as your Father is perfect." After all, if our righteousness is as filthy rags, how is it possible to even reach perfection?

It's not.

But that doesn't mean that we don't try.

Every moment, every hour, every time we speak or think, we should be representatives of Christ. We are "mini-Christs" so to speak. And if that is true, I ask you, are you making a very good likeness?

I know that I don't always. But I do try.

But maybe it is time to try harder. After all, I feel like we live in a world where we are constantly being told to be like the world. I think it has infected the Christian church, maybe like never before. I mean, look at us. Look at the divorces, and the drugs, and the pornography addictions. And as Americans, many of us have such luxury and freedom that these "worldly habits" become something that don't always affect us that much in real life. The alter is always open and often the same people make the same trips down.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing. Repentance is always wonderful and it is always good to get right with God. But why doesn't it stick? Why don't we stick to our resolve?

Because we are human. And yeah, that's all fine and good. It is true and God's mercies are new every morning. Thank goodness for us. Because if I was God, I would have lost patience by now, right?

Anyway, all this to say, I don't make New Years resolutions. But I am going to try to read my Bible through in a year this year. And I am going to try to pray without ceasing. And I am going to try to love even my enemies.

Because, if we believe what we say we do, that Christ has come down to earth to redeem the world and that it is He alone that saves, then we better get to doing our job, people. God says that His grace is sufficient. And that He always gives us a way out of temptation.

So let's depend on that grace a little more. And let's look for the ways out with a little more diligence.

And maybe then this world will change. And maybe people will find Jesus. And the love and honor and beauty that we are all missing in this world (and even in ourselves) will return to us.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. And He will lift you up. Higher and Higher. And He will lift you up.