Just how important is your image to you? The more you are driven by image, the more you are enslaved to performance. Do you deeply need everyone to see you win – is there a constant need for triumph – to look good – to be praised – to come out on top?
Tall pedestals create a long, hard fall, my friend.
This is real life and in real life there are battles in which you won’t always look good. There are times when you will fail and times when you will hurt. Times when your image will be disheveled. Are you just going to perform your way through that? Is it going to be more important for you to portray perfection than allow God to break you and work his perfection in you?
Look at a child. Aren’t they just perfect with their chubby little rolls and full face, open mouth giggles. Perfect babies, but so much growing to do. So much to learn. Still so much for them to become. My friends, that is us in our faith walk. As a child of God we are perfect in our creation, a true masterpiece of our Maker, yet we have so much growing to do. We are in process to becoming all we were created to be. And that process is sometimes messy, sometimes brutal, sometimes really imperfect.
There’s a work happening within each of us from the moment we accept Jesus as the LORD of our lives. That’s a work of the Holy Spirit. God’s presence dwells within us and cleans house. We’re undergoing a continual demo work inside. A reworking and restructuring of our attitude, our perspective, our desires and our priorities. And really, that’s what our entire lifetime here on earth is – the work of the Holy Spirit within us, growing us, teaching us, molding us, perfecting us.
When will that work be done? Not here. Not in this lifetime. But when we get to our eternal destination of glory, then the work in us will finally be complete. That will be our mark of perfection.
But here on earth as we’re walking out our lifetime, we’re not going to be perfect. We’re going to continually be a work of progress under the direction of the Holy Spirit.
Will you be willing to just show that? Really, that’s what this world needs. But not only the world as a whole, but your world, your little circle, your community, your office, your family – they need to see the work God is doing in you. In order for them to see that work, they need to know you struggle, they need to know you don’t really just wake up like that, they need to see behind the curtain, without the makeup, on the hard days where you still just show up and partner with the work the Holy Spirit is doing in you.
When you’re in performance mode with your display of perfection to be praised, you may look good but let me tell you what that’s doing for the people around you – it’s making it easy for them to see you, but hard to see your God. Everyone around you is dealing with a tinge of insignificance, a hint of ‘not good enough’ and when you dare to be real with them you allow space for their struggle to meet the Holy Spirit you carry.
Girl, you carry the presence of God in you. There’s zero need for you to portray yourself as perfect – there’s absolutely EVERY NEED for you to make space for the perfection of God. That means you’re going to have to admit you struggle too. You’re going to have to be make friends with that unpolished part of you that you would prefer no one else see.
What would you rather see – my perfection that tells you I’m perhaps better than you …. or the parts of me that God is still working on that show you if God loves, chooses and uses me in my state, he can love, choose and use you in yours.
Girls, why are we getting this so wrong? Why do we struggle with this balance? This life is not a performance to look impressive – this life is an opportunity to carry the presence of God and point to the working power of the Holy Spirit available to each one of us.
Paul says in Philippians 3:12-14, “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”
Paul, the man who was responsible for starting some of the first churches to follow Jesus – Paul, the man responsible for writing the majority of our New Testament Bible – Paul, the one who had a very personal encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus that radically changed everything for him – THAT PAUL – and he’s saying I’m not perfect, but Jesus is working perfectly in me!
You are not perfect, but Jesus is working perfectly in YOU!
Maybe today you need to stop trying so hard to look like you’ve already arrived. Maybe you need to take the pressure off yourself to have it all together, know all the answers, respond perfectly, never struggle, never lose your temper, never doubt, never get discouraged, never make a mistake. Maybe you need to stop curating the image and start embracing the process.
God isn’t asking you to prove that He’s done a good work in you. He’s inviting you to let Him continue doing that good work in you. There is a huge difference.
Performance says, “Look what I’ve accomplished.” Grace says, “Look what God is doing.”
Performance needs applause. Grace is content with obedience.
Performance protects the image. Grace surrenders the heart.
Performance says, “I need you to think I’m doing well.”
Grace says, “I need Jesus to keep doing His work in me.”
Girl, you don’t have to be impressive. You have to be available. You don’t have to have the perfect marriage, the perfect kids, the perfect attitude, the perfect body, the perfect house, the perfect faith, the perfect morning routine, the perfect prayer life or the perfect answer. You don’t have to walk into every room looking like you’ve got it all figured out. You can walk in as a woman who is still becoming. Still learning. Still healing. Still growing. Still surrendering. Still getting things wrong and letting Jesus teach you how to get them right.
And honestly? That’s a much more beautiful testimony. Because nobody needs another woman standing on a pedestal telling them how to be perfect. We need women who will climb down off the pedestal, sit beside us in the mess and say, “Girl, me too. But let me tell you what Jesus is teaching me.”
That’s where connection happens. That’s where shame loses its power. That’s where grace gets room to breathe. And that’s where people begin to see Jesus instead of just seeing you.
People need to see what it looks like to have Jesus in the middle of a hard day. They need to see what forgiveness looks like when you’re still hurt. They need to see what humility looks like when you were wrong. They need to see what repentance looks like when you blew it. They need to see what faith looks like when you don’t know what’s next.
That is discipleship. Not perfection on display, but Jesus at work in real life. So let them see the process. Let them see the unfinished places.
Yesterday evening in front of the grocery store, I met a man named Jeff. Jeff pushes a shopping cart full of dirty bags and walks with his head down. As I parked my bike, he approached me and asked me for some spare change. Looking at his face, it appeared he had recently been in a fight and he was covered in shame. I told him I didn’t have any money on me, but I would most certainly buy him some food inside. He asked for a can of soup.
When I returned from my short shopping trip, I handed him a can of chili mac and cheese along with a can of chunky potato soup. He was grateful. Then I invited him to lock eyes with me and engage in conversation.
Standing there in my Natural Life dress with a credit card to buy anything I wanted in my pocket, a bag of fresh food to cook for my dog, and my $2000 e-bike, I didn’t exactly come across as someone who could understand his situation. He looked at me as if I were better than him. As if I had perfection while he didn’t. That’s when I asked Jeff if there was anything he needed prayer for. He said, “Well, yes – I need a house.”
I said, “Okay Jeff, I understand – is it okay if I pray with you right now?”
Ever so politely, he declined, explaining that he struggled with faith and he felt he was more of a toaist. That’s when I felt the Holy Spirit just take over. All my ‘perfection’ left me and I said, “I’m not familiar with that – can you tell me what that means?” Suddenly Jeff and I were in a conversation about faith, about a struggle to believe something he couldn’t see and simply couldn’t feel. He said he had tried many different religions and nothing ever worked for him.
I asked him if he had tried Jesus. He stood there with no answer in deep thought. Struggling. I looked him in the eye and told him, “Jeff, God created you, he knows you and he loves you.” That’s when his bright blue eyes filled with tears and he said, “I try so hard to be a good person.” I could see that. There was so much goodness in him.
Although he wasn’t ready for me to pray with him, he listened as I told him one encounter with Jesus could radically change his life. I told him I had seen people with a lifetime of addiction be set free, I had seen sickness be healed, I had seen families restored and it all happened with Jesus.
You see, last night in front of the grocery store, an imperfect struggling man met a very imperfect woman who carries a perfect God. I’m not his answer, but I carry his answer. I’m not his fixer, but I carry his fixer.
And that’s the whole point. Jeff didn’t need to meet a perfect woman in the parking lot of a grocery store. He needed to meet a woman willing to be real enough for Jesus to use her. He didn’t need my polished image, my answers, my accomplishments or my ability to make everything look good. He needed the presence of God I carry.
And maybe that’s what the people around you need too. So get off the pedestal. Lay down the performance. Stop worrying so much about how you look and start caring more about what Jesus can do through you.
You are not perfect, and you don’t need to be. You are being perfected. You are still becoming. You are still under construction. And every imperfect, unfinished, unpolished part of you is an opportunity for someone else to see just how perfect your God really is.
Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela
Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim
Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com
Weitere Episoden von „BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women“
Verpasse keine Episode von “BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women” und abonniere ihn in der kostenlosen GetPodcast App.
