I am so concerned with doing things right. So afraid of messing up and screwing up God’s perfect plan. I’m so afraid of missing something or failing. So I reach for control. I grasp and scrape and wrap myself up in this box of expectations I tell myself I have to meet.
Sometimes I even have myself convinced that these rules and expectations are from God.
They aren’t.
They are lies meant to bind me, tie me up, and keep me from the freedom Christ wants to give me.
It’s been a struggle as I’ve gone around and around in my head, questioning everything I do, every emotional response, every thought and desire.
I feel crowded in, agitated, like a failure because I’m not what or where I think I need to be.
But now the Light.
He is braking into my darkness. Looking down at my chains he says, “No more. You are free.”
At the sound of His voice the chains break, the weight lifts and I feel like I could sing and shout and dance.
Freedom….
Can I remind you–and myself–of something? The Lord is much more gentle and loving and caring than we tend to believe. He is the perfect one, not us. His perfection covers us. It isn’t something we have to strive for–some ideal we tell ourselves we need to reach.
Jesus is perfection.
He is enough. More than enough. And in the midst of this struggle, He has put His hand on my heart and told me to stop. Just stop trying so hard. Perfection is His job. Mine is to simply live in His love and leave room for His grace to work in and through me–to shower me.
Oh, Lord, how patient you are with us in this journey. Time and again we keep going back to the same things that tie us up in knots and lovingly you come back and remind us of the freedom you have given. We are no longer slaves. We are children–sons and daughters of the Glorious and Almighty King. We are held in your arms and perfection shouldn’t be something for which we strive. You want us. Actually desire us. You want to be near us, to hear us, to be known by us. You desire to talk and share and listen and sit quietly without words. You enjoy us. You treasure us. There is no striving. Striving is something we are supposed to cease doing. Cease striving and know that you are God. Just know. Just be.
And the chains fall…Simply being in His presence and letting His truth overwhelm us, letting His love envelope us–that is perfection.
So, dear heart, cease striving. Give up the search for whatever it is you feel you need to measure up, to be good enough, to do everything right, to be perfect. Give it up and fling yourself into His waiting arms. And stay there. Don’t leave. Simply live in His love and bask in the glorious glow of His presence.
Live in His love!
Related: Embracing Freedom Daily Freedom
