Faithfulness over Perfection

It's okay to be a Christian and not be perfect.

I don't usually feel like that. I usually feel the exact opposite of that. I get frustrated with myself when I struggle with sin, or trials. Telling myself, I shouldn't struggle with these things, I'm saved, I love Jesus, I should be perfect, I should be above this, I shouldn't struggle. 

You know where I find comfort in my struggle for perfection...Old Testament law. 

Because when God gave the Israelites the law, he included something else. He included a way to repent when they broke the law. He anticipated their breaking the law...he anticipated the fact they would mess up...he anticipated failure.

The Israelites were not punished for sinning. When they experienced war, famine, drought, it was not because someone sinned. They only experienced those things when they turned away from God and his law altogether, either by worshipping other gods, or sinning against him without seeking repentance or his guidance.

When Moses first received the ten commandments, the people turned from God to worship a golden cow.
"Go down to your people...[they] have corrupted themselves. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it...now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them."
 -Exodus 32:7-10

During King Hoshea's reign over Israel, the king of Assyria captures the Israelites' land and takes the Israelites away to Assyria. Why?..
"And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God,...and had feared other gods and walked in the customs of other nations...and they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger; they served idols"

What's my point?

God cares more about your faithfulness than your perfection. It was their faithlessness that offended him.

"Return O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness."- Jeremiah 3:22

God knew, that the Israelites could not be perfect. But he wanted them to be faithful. He knew they could never be perfect in their own sinful flesh. That's why in his beautiful redemption story He sent His son Jesus to die for us, to win the battle over sin for us, and then imparted The Spirit that defeated death and sin to us. Because of this, we don't have to lose the battle to sin. We don't have to keep living the same lives, being the same person we were.

We know this. We've been told this. In our head we know the story, we know the implications.

But our lives don't change right away. We spend our days fighting for victory over sin. And there are seasons where it seems like we're losing. And we give up... or if we're honest, we'll admit we want too. Our failures tell us: were not good enough to be Christians, Christians don't struggle with sin, you're a hypocrite.

It is so much easier to just leave the fight, than watch yourself lose.

Meanwhile, God is still with us, desiring us to be faithful, to keep fighting, to keep believing, to keep persevering, to keep trusting. You're faithfulness is more important to him than your perfection.

Why is faithfulness more important? Because being faithful has to do with relationship. You're faithful to your significant other, or to your friend, because you love them, you know them, you know their character, you trust them.

You strive for perfection because of pride, a sense of obligation, your own ego, your desire to be recognized by God or by others.

It's okay if you're losing a battle right now. God doesn't want you to give up...because he hasn't given up. He believes in you. He believes in His spirit in you. When you accepted Jesus he made a covenant with you, like a marriage covenant, and God doesn't believe in divorce...so what does that tell you... it should tell you that he is serious about being faithful to you.

The fruit of the spirit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, FAITHFULNESS, gentleness, and self control. Which means not only is God faithful. He IS faithfulness. So he literally...can not...stop being faithful.

"But I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness."- Psalm 89:33
"If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before me"- Jeremiah 15:19
"...for I am with you to save and deliver you" - Jeremiah 15:20
"I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again I will build you, and you shall be built. O virgin Israel."-Jeremiah 31:3-4

When we give up, were telling God he can't save, that this sin is bigger than him (which is also saying Satan is bigger than him...which is pretty insulting), that we don't trust him, we don't believe in what he did on the cross, we don't want him.

But when we push through, when we stay faithful in what seems like a losing battle he says..

"Because he holds fast to me in love, I WILL DELIVER HIM, I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation."- Psalm 91:16

Someone once said...We fight FROM victory, not FOR victory. Christ has already won. And if we're not getting to see his victory play out in our life, it's because we're leaving the battle too soon. The bible tells us the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead....which also defeated death and sin I might add....in living inside us.

Look God doesn't want you to live in sin. But you will never overcome it by fighting from your flesh, fighting from your desire to have it all together, or fighting from your pride.

On my church's recent retreat I got to watch a baby take her first steps. I would hold her up by her hands and she would take a step or two and then fall. Every single time I was thrilled. We tried over and over again. Each time she took a step I shrieked with excitement, "Come on Evelyn! You're doing it! GOOD JOB!" Each time she fell we clapped, telling her "Good job, let's do it again!" 

We didn't scold her for falling...because we knew, or had faith, she would learn to walk.

I can't help but think God is the same way. You're failures don't anger him, depress him, or even surprise him...because he knows who he has created you to be. Your failures don't define you. He defines you. He doesn't see us for our mistakes...past, PRESENT, or FUTURE. He sees us in our perfection. Who he created us to be before he created the world. It's hard for us to imagine a God who's not condemning us or scolding us, but he's not. He's cheering you on. That's what GOOD dads do. That's what I did and I wasn't even her dad... I had actually just gotten to hang out with the baby that week. So if I...basically a stranger was excited, how much MORE excited is our perfect heavenly father to see us overcome sin in our lives. God wants you to know him as a father, a friend, a lover of your soul.

God wants us to press into him. Seek him, trust him, love him. If you're having a hard time being faithful to him, you probably need to get to know him more, spend more time with him, learn about how much he loves you. He cares about your relationship with him, because he cares about you. 

The beautiful thing is when we abide in him, when we are in relationship with him, fruit comes, victory over sin comes, joy comes, life comes.

"Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."- John 15:5

Relationship comes first. It is a humbling experience to admit that you are weak in an area of your life. But his strength is made perfect in our weakness. So keep fighting, no matter how many times you fail, because THAT takes faith. Know that God is cheering you on because he is faithful, and he is faithful because he loves you.

"[Be] confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion"

- Philippians 1:6