Living for God is the greatest joy and achievement of my life! Now, for those of you who know me, this doesn’t constitute me as perfect (shocker, I know!), although I have no valid excuses to offer for my shortcomings. I still get mad, cop a bad attitude from time to time, mouth off, fail to do what I should, and display other qualities that do not well represent my perfect God, for which I am sorry.
God and I are still working on me and will continue to do so until I kick off! I find myself everyday apologizing to Him for my big mouth and my sometimes-negative attitude, reaching out to find His hand for guidance, and running into His grace and forgiveness for my not-sosmart decisions. I repeat the same mistakes in the same way and have to start all over. His patience is amazing! I constantly need His help in taking on His attributes. Despite my shortcomings, I refuse to quit living for Him knowing that whatever I am, I’m far beyond what I would be if I didn’t know the Lord.
On the other hand, if you know God, you understand that His grace is sufficient, His forgiveness is infinite, He tosses my sins and yours into a sea of forgetfulness and He loves us anyway. Please note: His love doesn’t offer an excuse for my or your failures. We all have to repent daily and change our behaviors through His power that lives in us. Living for Him requires turning away from that which offends His spirit.
You see, the amazing thing about God is that we can’t judge Him by what we see in people. We can’t avoid a relationship with Him because we or others who declare our Christian faith fail, because it’s a sure fact we will. While we strive to live for Him and extend His love and truths to the world around us, we will always come up short, but God never does. He is perfect.
God offers validation in this life that we can’t and will never find anywhere else. He supersedes our human frailties and loves us anyway.
He picks us up and cleans us up when we pollute our minds and thoughts with the garbage of life and continues to mold us into His image, applying a little pressure here and a little pressure there – holding us close and forgiving us when we cry tears of regret and speak words of sorrow. To quote the singer, He doesn’t give up easy! I for one, am glad He doesn’t.
I haven’t forgotten what life was like for me before God. I never want to be in that place again. Despite the fact that I was only sixteen years old when He filled me with His glorious spirit, I still remember. The loneliness. The feelings of worthlessness. The incomplete state of my being. The hunger for something greater than myself. The need to find validation for my life. The void that He filled. The joy that He gave. The love that He expressed. His power when it moved it and the evidence that came with it! My beautiful family couldn’t fill it. My close friends couldn’t soothe it. It took a Savior.
People fail us. We fail people. People leave us. We leave people. We hurt. We cry. We complain. We accuse and we are accused. Life goes crazy sometimes, we still have to live it, but we don’t have it live it alone. God is available for each and every human heart and He will never fail to respond to those who cry out to Him.
If you see my failures or those of others who declare and wear the name of Jesus, please don’t let it deter you from seeking and following God, we’re imperfect people without excuse. Don’t avoid Him or His house because we fail. It’s not us we’re elevating. It’s not ourselves that we proclaim. It’s a perfect God that we worship and declare and offer you. Run to Him, let Him fill you then never stop serving and loving Him!
