Perfect People Only Need Apply

Does it seem to you that only others can worship, pray, or serve God, that you are too flawed to know and love Him? Does some memory of failure, some past choice, some flaw of character stand in the way of a richer relationship with God? Or perhaps you have taken the other road, trying so hard to make up for that failure, working so hard at making yourself ‘perfect’ that you know little of the joy of Jesus. Perhaps you missed a recurring theme in the Bible.

God used very flawed people to accomplish His work, loved failures to wholeness, and demonstrated His grace in weakness.

Take the life of Samson for an example. His story is one of the longest in the book of Judges. God met his parents miraculously and promised them a son. He was to be dedicated to the LORD for His purposes.  His life began this way: ”The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the LORD blessed him, and the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him.” (Judges 13:24)  But it goes bad quickly. Samson loved foreign women and had a terrible temper!  His personal story is not family friendly, a polite way to say that he was often out of control.   

And yet!! God used him to lead Israel and to defeat their enemies. After a sad and violent life, he died as he had lived. "Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me again. O God, please strengthen me one more time so that I may pay back the Philistines for the loss of my eyes.” Then Samson put his hands on the center pillars of the temple and pushed against them with all his might. “Let me die with the Philistines,” he prayed. And the temple crashed down on the Philistine leaders and all the people. So he killed more people when he died than he had during his entire lifetime." (Judges 16:28-30, NLT)  Does the end justify the way Samson lived? Not at all.  There were tragic consequences for his actions, but a key fact is that he was loved and used by God.

We could explore the life of King David, a man who knew the Lord and still sinned awfully. Or we might consider Peter whose pride and bluster led him to deny his Lord Jesus at a most critical moment, but God still used him to lead the early Church.  There is Paul, who was a religious zealot, persecuting Christians intensely, but God called him to take the Gospel to the far reaches of the Empire and inspired him to write half of our New Testament.

Paul expresses our hope in God’s grace with this passage. "This is a true saying, and everyone should believe it: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—and I was the worst of them all. But that is why God had mercy on me, so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life." (1 Timothy 1:15-16, NLT)

You are valuable to God. He has no sign that says, “perfect people only need apply!” There is a place for repentance and renewal. We are called to walk in the goodness of God, growing in maturity, grace, and victory over our sins. But we remain human, prone to failure as the hymn says: 

Let Thy grace, Lord, like a fetter;
Bind my wand'ring heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;
Prone to leave the God I love!
Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above!

We lean hard on His grace and find IN HIS strength the ability to do what we could never do for ourselves.

The word from the Word today is a great encouragement for ordinary people like me. May His truth call you to love Him more. "We don’t go around preaching about ourselves; we preach Christ Jesus, the Lord. All we say about ourselves is that we are your servants because of what Jesus has done for us. For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made us understand that this light is the brightness of the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. But this precious treasure—this light and power that now shine within us—is held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own." (2 Corinthians 4:5-7, NLT)

(Video of this blog at this link)

____________________

Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing

Come Thou fount of ev'ry blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it
Mount of Thy redeeming love

Here I raise mine Ebenezer (a memorial stone)
Hither by Thy help I'm come
And I hope by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wand'ring from the fold of God
He to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be
Let Thy grace Lord like a fetter
Bind my wand'ring heart to Thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart Lord take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above

 

John Wyeth | Robert Robinson

© Words: Public Domain