Hello friends, welcome to In Bolden. I'm Chris Shatter, an ordinary Christian living with and learning about an extraordinary God. Can you believe it? Today is day 30 of our 30 Days of Giving Glory to Almighty God.
I'll begin today with Psalms 24-10. Who is he, this King of Glory? The Lord Almighty, he is the King of Glory. And my prayer today is, My Lord, My God, perfect in every way.
Awesome in power and in majesty. I come before you, your imperfect, adopted daughter. Grateful for the cleansing you completed in me through your Son Jesus. Grateful for the work your Holy Spirit continues in me so that I can bow before you, blameless and faithful.
Amen. One of my daughters suffered for a while with perfectionism. She once told me that she got that need to be perfect from me. I had to admit I played a strong part through my own need to always do things just right.
And that needs them from a whole in my heart. A whole that needed filling with love and grace. I worried if I messed up, then I would lose respect, lose friends and lose love. I'm sure my daughter felt the same.
And it grieved me. I had passed that along to her. I'm so grateful she had the courage to share her struggle with me so that I could remind her how much I love her no matter what. Thankfully, she sought out God and the healing power of Jesus sooner in her life than I did.
I finally realized the truth behind that flippant remark, nobody's perfect. Well, there is one body who is perfect and that's the triune God. Other than that, we all fall woefully short. Can I get an amen?
Genesis 17 1 says, when Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, I am God almighty. Walk before me faithfully and be blameless. In the King James Version, substitutes blameless for perfect. When God had this conversation with Abraham, he wasn't expecting this man to be sinless and impossible goal for us to reach.
In fact, the word perfect is translated as single-hearted without blame, and the sire, and wholly devoted to the Lord. It's not to say we aren't to strive to mirror God's perfect will, but as our Creator, he knows our weaknesses. Deuteronomy 32, 3 through 4 tells us, I will proclaim the name of the Lord, O praise the greatness of our God, He is the rock, His works are perfect, and all His ways are just, a faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He. You know, in the history of our human existence, there has never been another worship God that can claim this state of perfection.
The Greek gods fought amongst themselves and were jealous. They required constant preening and begging to intervene in human lives, and when they did, you didn't know for whose benefit they would act. The God of ancients, Baal, also needed constant pleas into child's sacrifice and sexually immoral acts. Fast forward to today, and the gods we modern humans have created look a lot like ourselves.
We place our minds in the center of the universe, and we need to feed the God of humans through wealth and fame and accumulation, all the while not being able to accomplish a tiny portion of what the one true God has done and will do. Yes, my friend, God wants our attention, He wants our worship, He wants our obedience, but He doesn't need any of it. He is perfect without us. That, my friends, is what makes His devotion to us and His love for us and His sacrifice of His Son, all more glorious.
What I say to that is, thank you, Gloria. Thank you for your holy word, your promises to us, for justice and mercy and grace. I give you all the glory you rightfully deserve today. Amen.
I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Abolden Podcast. Be sure to follow along so you don't miss any episode, and check out my blog at Embolden.net.