Hey guys, in my next few posts, I want to call your attention to some fears you must deal with in life. If you do not deal with these fears, they can keep you in the chicken yard, but as you confront them and overcome them, you will be well on your way to becoming an eagle.
Lets start with this one:
Fear of not pleasing God
If you want to go higher in God, you must also address the fear that your imperfections will keep you from pleasing God. This is a significant struggle for many people; they suffer terribly with secret worries that they are not pleasing God, they are not doing things enough or they are not doing things correctly. They are afraid God is displeased with them because they don't read the bible enough, they don't pray properly, or they don't have enough faith.
They live in bondage to the fear that nothing they do is ever enough for God. *This is a lie!*
The devil wants us to believe "enough is never enough". He wants us to feel no matter what we do, God will always want something more or something different.
This is very sad, because the truth is that God isn't nearly as hard to please as we think He is! Yes He has high standards and desires excellence in every area, but the truth is that nothing about us surprises Him. He knew what he was getting into when He called us into relationship with Himself. When we make mistakes, He doesn't sit in heaven wringing His hands saying "I am shocked by your behavior, I never expected that!" Psalms 139 tells us plainly that He knows what we are going to do before we do it, so try to keep in mind that God knows all about you and loves you anyway!
Read this next statement closely: *if you could be perfect, you would not need Jesus*. Your willingness to keep pressing towards the mark of perfection is all God requires. If you are really in love with Jesus, your love for Him will keep you pressing towards perfection everyday. But I can almost guarantee you will always fall short in some way everyday.
If you are really a sincere Christian, there is no way you can take a lighthearted "oh well, I don't care" attitude towards your shortcomings. Your love for Jesus will compel you to want to do better everyday. You will get up the next day and try to do better again; maybe you will do better in some area, but you may fail in something else.
The message God is trying to communicate to you through these situations is: "you still need me".
Instead of focusing on your faults, focus on your progress.
Stay focused as you confront and break the fear of not being able to please God. You cannot allow your faults to distract you from going on with Him. He is the only one who can help you overcome your faults and weaknesses; so focus on Him instead of them.
If you are in Christ Jesus, you please Father God completely because He sees who you are in Christ Jesus, not who you are on your own merits. Remember, we are saved by Grace, not by our own works.
Salvation is not the result of anything we could possibly do; it is a gift from God to be received by faith (see Ephesians 2:8-9)
Culled from "Never Give up" by Joyce Meyer.
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