“Perfectionism is a self destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought: If I look perfect, and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment, and blame.” Brene’ Brown
I have been reading some books by Brene’ Brown and this quote has stopped me in my tracks. How many times do we try to be perfect so that we “can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment, and blame.” In our Christian life, are we needlessly trying to be perfect in order to please God’s favor? Do we feel like we could earn God’s love? Do we continue to bury the feelings of shame of the sins in our past so that God will view us as perfect?
“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”
Psalm 103:13-14 NIV
What a promise in this verse! God knows how we are formed. We are made of stinking dust! He knows our frailties too well. We can’t hide our imperfections from our creator. No matter how hard we try, we can’t hide the past mistakes that we are ashamed of. But that is the point and the victory in this verse,
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,”
Romans 8:1 NIV
None! Absolutely no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We are wasting our time and effort to run from our imperfections. It is impossible to run from them because there is a delete button.
“And he has taken our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west.”
Psalms 103:12 ERV
We can’t comprehend how far the east is from the west. No way to measure this. God is trying to tell us that he does not see us with our past sin sitting in front of our face. He sees Jesus standing in front of our face, as the covering for past and present and future sins. He literally covers our imperfections! Highest praise to Jesus!
“fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”
Hebrews 12:2 NIV
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