For each of of the next 21 days, I will be sharing specific ways believers can set themselves apart for Christ through prayer, fasting, and intentional focus. Yesterday was "despite a lack of time," and today is "despite your failures."
Call me a classic perfectionist.
My whole life, I've wanted to do things right. Not just right, but perfectly. Better than anyone else. I've had a need - a compulsion, really - to excel. So for someone like me, not being excellent is more than just an inconvenience. It's a nightmare.
Messing up comes with being human, though. No matter how hard we work or how much effort we give, we will fall short - and sometimes fall on our faces. It's true in our jobs, our parenting, our marriages, and even our walks with the Lord. Failures happen. We mess up.
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When we look in the mirror and see nothing but mistakes, God sees righteousness. He sees the blood of His son covering all of our shortcomings, and He doesn't write us off. He doesn't have a supernatural scorecard where He rates us like we rate ourselves. Our failures don't disqualify us from being His children. Rather, our weaknesses are opportunities for His grace. His "power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:19).
Grace is never an excuse for giving less than your all, but failure is never an excuse for giving up.
Regardless of what mistakes you made this week, God is making you new. Rest in the knowledge that you - because you are His - are enough.
Today's Prayer: "I could list way after way I have failed this week. I have failed you, I have failed my family, I have failed myself. But Lord, you promise that you will never leave me, so I need your presence in those failures. I need you because of them and through them. Remind me that I am not the sum of my mistakes, and that no matter what, you take great delight in me. Rejoice over me with your singing, Lord, and let my soul hear the tune."
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