The Internal War Between Sin and God's Law

I am a perfectionist. I have a tendency to expect perfection from myself. I expect myself to be a model Christian, to always be productive, to always act happy, to always do everything right, and I tend to believe that if I do these things, if I am perfect, God will be more happy with me.

But the truth is, I'm far from perfect. I don't always wake up at the time that I want to, I am not always productive, I loose my temper, and I don't always stick to my workout schedule.

But that's okay.

Because of Jesus, I don't need to worry about being perfect. God loves me just as much when I can't do anything right as when I seam to do everything right.

My goal in life should not be perfection, it should be to better display the glory of God and the furthering of His Kingdom. I need to remember: 

God's glory is best displayed through my imperfections, not my perfections.

After all, we need Jesus because of our sin. A doctor can't heal someone who isn't sick. So why would Jesus die for perfect people? On the contrary, Jesus came because we are sinful, wretched, imperfect people. We need Jesus because we need saving.

We should seek to become better versions of ourselves out of thankfulness for Jesus. The purpose of life should not be to gain God's approval. We already have that! We seek self-discipline because we love God. And when we love God that much, we will grow to become better people, not perfect people. 

So we humbly go before the Lord, out of thankfulness, out of understanding of who God is and who we are in light of Him, and remembering that we will always be imperfect as long as we are here on earth. We ask for God's help because, the only way that we can truly give all glorify God is by the help of God Himself. 

We are no more beautiful that when we are at the feet of Jesus.

We can do nothing apart from Christ.

I can relate to these lyrics from "Lord, I Need You" by Matt Maher:

Lord, I come, I confess

Bowing here I find my rest

Without you I fall apart

You're the One that guides my heart

Lord, I need You, oh, I need You

Every hour I need You

My one defense, my righteousness

Oh God, how I need You

Where sin runs deep Your grace is more

Where grace is found is where You are

Where You are, Lord I am free

Holiness is Christ in me

Lord, I need You, oh I need You

Every hour I need You

My one defense, my righteousness

Oh God, how I need you

So teach my song to rise to You

When temptation comes my way

When I cannot stand I'll fall on You

Jesus, You're my hope and stay

Lord, I need You, oh I need You

Every hour I need You

My one defense, my righteousness

Oh God, how I need You

I'd like to close with this passage from Romans:

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,

but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Romans 7:21-23, 25