Always striving..

You didn’t get your workout in today or have time for a  shower to look nice? Fail.

Aren’t prepared with healthy meals so you do not have to eat out? Fail.

Haven’t done enough for others today and forgot an important birthday? Fail.

Did you read your bible for 30 minutes exactly today? Fail.

Your house isn’t perfectly clean and laundry done and put away? Fail.

It gets comical when you go down the list doesn’t it? But to some degree we all can do this. We take on expectations from personal experience and cultural influence. Even failing short in one of them and we receive the message that we are not enough.  Before we even begin our day we often put ourselves in a position of failure based on our scales of success. Do you have the same bug in your ear?

“You fail. Why can you not get yourself together and get it all done? Day by day you are a disappointment. If only you_________ then you would have done and been enough. But you didn’t. Your friends have the same time in the day and they somehow have it all together. (It seems…) They even do it effortlessly and stay patient with their family. What’s wrong with you? Be discouraged, frustrated, and sit in it.” 

We say that we become so weary of this world and all that it throws at us, when really we are giving into all the unrealistic and toxic expectations it throws at us. You may think you have arrived when completing your list when inside you are still left exhausted and unsatisfied. We fall for the ploy that we need to strive for more to reach contentment, while instead we are left feeling insignificant, run down, and only desperate for more. We are expected to maintain a front that we are doing really well, when in reality we are struggling behind it all while we try to get ourselves together. What if I told you there is more behind this than you realize.

We would tell a friend that they are amazing and encourage them that they do not have to live up to anything, and that they are great because of who they are, but we won’t give ourselves the same encouragement? 

Do you find yourself working hard to fill voids  in your life with achievement, acceptance , or status? We work hard each day to accomplish, improve, and satisfy either for ourselves or others. We can hit every goal we have and still feel empty and unseen. Even when we serve and love others well it can feel like it makes no difference. We are still left wondering if we’ll ever be enough or do enough? 

The things we’re truly trying to gain include the following: 

Love. Acceptance. Belonging. Impact. Beauty. Righteousness. Significance.

We do not need to feel bad about having these desires, we were created for these things.  What we need to realize is that through Christ, we already possess them all. We are made righteous! Claim the value and identity you possess.

In the world’s eyes, we will never be enough, do enough, or have enough. This world wants to convince you that you must keep striving for more until you run yourself into the ground. We think that we are not falling for it when in reality we easily fall for it moment by moment. We begin believing that if we improve our actions and performance that we will be more holy for God and are fooled into the idea that that is what He is looking for. This way of life will lead you on a treadmill of exhaustion that will never lead to break through.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put healthy disciplines into practice like  time management, goals, hard work ethic, and self control. These are all important things, but the heart’s intention behind it tells all. The why and what you are striving for will tell you where your heart lies and why your capacity runs out. On our own we do and will fail, BUT if we believe in CHRIST, we are redeemed by the cross ALONE. It is done.

We are battling strong forces and lies every moment, keep us toiling for the very things that lead us to disappointment and destruction. We are deceived into a rat race of striving for righteousness that causes us heart break over and over again, which can lead us into heavy burdened lives of shame and toil rather than lives of freedom and abundance. There is self righteousness in striving, believing that we can save ourselves from our sin. Instead, if the posture of our hearts is in awe of the cross, it leads to an increase in humility, dependence, and surrender, and a clearer picture of who we are in Christ.

God is love. (1 John 4:16) His love is perfection and embodies every single one of our desires listed above and beyond. God is holy and righteous, which we must also be to be with Him in any capacity. “For you are not a God who delights in wickedness: evil may not dwell with you.” (Psalm 5:4) A “righteous requirement of the law” is necessary to be fulfilled in us and is in those “who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:4)

You might be thinking, wait a minute I thought we aren’t supposed to strive? But I am in no way perfect or righteous. That is right! That is the greatest part! Its miraculous! 

Because of Christ being the ultimate sacrifice on the cross, our sins have been completely pardoned, past, present, and future. Do you know what this means! YOU are counted as RIGHTEOUS because of Christ! You are fully LOVED! You BELONG! You are ACCEPTED AS YOU ARE! You have the Spirit and Power of Jesus inside you to make immeasurable IMPACT. You are BEAUTY! You embody all of these things RIGHT NOW AS YOU ARE!  Before the dishes, the work out, the makeover,  and even serving the world. Do you believe that? Are you living in that? If you want an easy formula to ingrain in your heart and mind it is this…

Christ on the Cross = Your Rightousness

“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24

So we need to take a step back from our lives and discern what we are striving for and why. We have a choice to walk “according to the flesh”, listening to the lies of unending shame and inadequacy. God is not a God of shame or guilt, but instead He is a God who brings redemption and freedom. Shame and guilt come from our own minds or planted there by an enemy who seeks to destroy us. Instead of giving into the lie that you should feel awful about yourself, draw into a God who loves and restores any and every broken piece of you. He is working things out inside of you meant for good and for His highest glory.

The Lord does not need you to work on yourself for Him. That is a lie. 

He made you and is in love with you JUST as you are. He will use you just as you are. He made you that way on purpose. You are in a losing battle if you are working on yourself to be enough for Him or anything. Rather than striving for righteousness and to be enough, rest in the righteousness He already gifted you with and be okay with celebrating who He made you. The more you walk with Him the more you will grow zeal for Him and He will continue molding you to be more like Him. That is exactly what we were made to be, in love with Him and like Him. Everything else will fall exactly into the place He has for it. 

So stop trying to arrive at who you think you were made to be. You are there! You are the YOU He purposed you to be. It does not mean He is done working in you. Now we can live not for ourselves, but by the “Spirit” which is surrendering our lives and moments to the Lord for His leading. We all need to see that we live in the highest possible status as part of royalty of the most High King and claim our seat at the table with Him. We cannot do anything to increase our value because it is at the highest and cannot be taken away. 

“Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”  Isaiah 53:11

God says.. You are righteous because of ME. BE with ME. Fall in love with Me. Claim MY righteousness, live in it, and claim My power in You. You have My love. You have My Sprit inside you.

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.” 2 Peter 1:3

He has granted ALL things to us that we could ever need for the godliness that we strive for. It’s because of HIS power, not our own. For HE has called US to come to Him and to embody HIS glory and excellence. Rest in love with Him. BE with Him. Operate out of His love and power. Every moment will be intentional, purposeful, and miraculous in its own way because that is who He is. And you will never desire nor need to strive for anything ever again. 

He is inviting you to be free and full. He is asking you to claim and live in the gift of righteousness He has paid a high price for!

 

 

 

Let’s try this again. Let’s fight against those battles…….

 

• • You didn’t get your workout in today? 

No but I am learning to love who God made me as I am RIGHT NOW. Learning to see myself as the beautiful creation He made me and be not just content, but grateful. I will cherish and care for my body the best I can today as grateful and honoring to Him. I am made in His image. How could that not be anything but exquisite?  

 

• • Aren’t prepared with healthy meals so you have to eat out? 

I am so thankful for the options to provide for my family in different times of need. We need food for our bodies, and I am thankful for the nourishment no matter what it is! Yay for yummy fast food sometimes! 

 

• • Didn’t have time for a shower so you don’t feel put together for the day? 

Lord, I praise you for making me as I am. Help me find my beauty in how I am like you and accept myself as you celebrate me. Help me focus on the ways you can use me and how YOU see me as beautiful. 

• Haven’t done enough for others today because you had too much on your plate?

Lord, allow me to live fully in intimacy with you and fulfilled with what those moments are with you. That alone is my purpose. Lead me into service in your way and time.

• You didn’t remember your sister’s birthday? 

Lord, how can I step in to love my sister in law right in this moment that would touch her heart and show her she is loved by me? My love and care for her is a gift alone. Help me express that. 

 

• • Did you read your bible for 30 minutes exactly today?

  I am so thankful, Lord, to have you every moment of everyday to sit with, talk to, and be guided by. Please make time for me to also be in your word. Allow me to rest in relationship with You and being in Your presence alone all day long!

 

• • Your house isn’t perfectly clean and laundry done and put away?

  Lord, allow me to see that loving my family as You love them is most important. The people in my home are my ministry you gave me. This building of a home is not. Allow me to love them as you call me to in each moment. That may mean laundry if I have time. That may also mean leaving the mess and just being with them. 

Ending Prayer:

Lord, thank you for Your amazing love and acceptance of me as I am. Help me to see Your beauty and be overwhelmed by it. Help me to see Your beauty within myself. Allow me to be at a level of intimacy with you that my perspective of myself and others is in alignment with Yours. I cry out to you to free me from the expectations of this world and the ones I put on myself. Help me to acknowledge that you, the ALMIGHTY GOD powerful over all, are fighting for me and with me in the battle. Nothing can overcome us. Keep my eyes focused on you and resting in You completely because of the posture of surrender my heart is in. Guide me into what YOU have created me for and guide me out of everything, even good, that you have not called me into. Give me peace in it. Most of all Lord, continue drawing me into intimacy with you first and through it transforming my heart and life to the perfection of Your Spirit that is already inside me. I love you! I praise you in all seasons and all circumstances. Thank you for your cross. Thank you for loving me. I believe! Amen.