Have you ever been in the checkout line at the grocery store and looked through the magazines that are on display? Their covers promise us we will have an organized and clean home, be able to cook gourmet meals, lose weight without effort, and have wonderful relationships if we read their magazine. Oh, if only it were that easy!
As women, we are hit with messages from the world that tell us we need to pursue the perfect life. It’s not just in the grocery store checkout line either. It’s on tv, the internet, in books, and movies. You name it and there is always some other source telling us we must be perfect.
I know they’re not fooling you, though. You know that a perfect life is impossible. And trying to achieve a perfect life is exhausting and overwhelming. Yet for some reason, we still pursue it.
God does not want us to live this way in defeat. He does not want us to pursue the world’s idea of perfection. In fact, He sent His Son Jesus to give us abundant life. In John 10:10 we read these words of Jesus. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I come that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Did you catch that? He said He came so we might have abundant life, not a perfect life. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we are not promised an easy life. There will still be trials, sickness, job loss, relationship issues, and many other things that the world deals with. It doesn’t matter if you are single, married, or widowed; work outside the home or stay at home. We are all affected by bad things in our lives. But because we have placed our trust in Jesus, then we know we have a source to whom we can spill out our hearts and cry for help.
This week we’ll explore how procrastination holds us back from pursuing peace as well as lies we hear from the world that we need to stop believing so we can pursue the peace God has for us and leave the perfection behind.