Striving for Perfection Could Mess Up the Plan

Job 9: ⁴ The Spirit of God has made me;
    the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
⁵ Answer me then, if you can;
    stand up and argue your case before me.
⁶ I am the same as you in God’s sight;
    I too am a piece of clay.

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A misplaced semicolon took me hours to find when debugging my code. This one tiny problem kept my program from being perfect. After more and more practice I found that I could be perfect in my coding in fewer tries. This spread to other areas of my life. I found that I could be perfect in job performance, financial management and carpentry.

I expected others to be perfect around me. I mean, I was perfect, right? Wrong!

• My first mistake of many was thinking I could be perfect.
• My second mistake of many was using my own measure of perfection to deem myself perfect.
• My third mistake of many thinking I had arrived in that perfection.

Confidence in myself could lead me to a place that is self-centered. My confidence, if leveraged the wrong way, could lead to arrogance then pride. Where should I put my confidence?

• GOD says to me “Place your trust in ME and you will not fail.”
• GOD says to me “I AM the way the truth and the life.”
• GOD says to me “I have a plan to prosper you.”

Just yesterday, GOD spoke through one of HIS servants in a sermon on a topic similar to this one. The illustration was the process of making pottery which takes a mound of clay and turns it into a work or art. The clay cannot tell the potter what it wants to be, rather it trusts that the potter is skilled enough to mold it into something beautiful.

Imperfections are smoothed out as the clay is “centered” and “turned” on the wheel. Heat is applied at the right time. GOD’s perfection for me is far better than my efforts to become perfect. HE allows me to be messy and continues to mold my life. Clay is moldable, rock is not. GOD also pursues rocky hearts but HE chisels instead of molds. This is more painful. I’d rather be molded.

• Are you resisting GOD?
• Are you allowing HIM to mold you into what HE wants you to be?
• Can you accept what is going on in your life as “Good for GOD’s purpose?”
• Will you allow your heart to be clay or stone?