“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weakness, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet did not sin. Let us approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4: 15-16

God never asked us to be perfect. The world sells us this idea that we can obtain the “perfect” house, body, life, family, outfits etc. But in reality when we strive to appear perfect we are just left empty, depressed, anxious and left trying to fill a void that was created by our own striving that can’t be filled with what the world calls perfect.

The only man on Earth to be perfect was Jesus Christ. God sent him to this Earth as a living sacrifice for us to be saved. In my short life on Earth I have strived for perfect, to have the “perfect” day, to have the “perfect” body, career, and wedding day. I have strived to find perfection and the only thing I have found in the striving is loneliness, depression and anxiety because I was striving for a life that God never wanted for me.

Perfection is a cage that the world tries to sell us, to keep us locked into the world. To keep us isolated from what we were truly meant to do with our lives.

God’s plans for us are different. When God created us, he created us with a purpose and he knows what weaknesses we have, he knows our strengths, he knows our hearts. The world does not, the world tries to change us into what the world wants us to be and when we succumb to who the world is pressuring us to be we lose all sight of who God created us to be.

God isn’t asking us to be perfect, he is asking us to have a relationship with him. A real, honest, relationship where we bring our weakness, our strength, our fears, anxieties and we lay them at the feet of Jesus. We surrender ourselves and the ideas of us having to be perfect to the feet of God and we lean in to who God called us to be when he created us. There is something inside all of us.

The world will only leave you alone when you don’t reach “perfection” but God never will. God will be there even in the moments you think he is not. God is with you you just need to call to him. Align yourself with God and you will be let out of the cage that you walked into.

Stop striving for perfection and start calling out and running to the Father.

Heavenly Father, I pray that whoever reads this blog sees that you love them for who they are. That you love them and all of their imperfections and you long for them to draw closer to you so they may align with the plans that you have for their life. Lord I pray that if they are feeling depressed, anxious, or worried that you will take that from them and remind them that you take care of them and their problems if they will surrender it all to you. Lord i pray that whoever reads this may be blessed and grow closer to you and be released from the chains of bondage that comes from striving to be perfect for the world. Lord i pray that the person reading this may be comforted by your love and grace and that they may grow to know you in an intimate way, as the heavenly father, counselor and friend that will be there with them until the end. Lord I pray this in your son’s name. Amen.