It's Okay Not To Be Okay

Ooooh its so sad to think about the good times… cause baby now we got bad blood

Seriously, here I go again; I see the perfect flipping couple who have the perfect flipping everything.. perfect date night.. perfect jobs.. perfect gifts.. perfect bible studies.. perfect devotionals. Seriously why can’t I have it together like that? I feel like the biggest loser, and I’m not talking about the TV show. Maybe if I was I would feel like I accomplished something. I hope I am not the only one who looks on social media and feels like everyone is Flawless and “They Woke Up Like This”.. I mean my God. I mean seriously, MY GOD could You have made me a little more flawless, that would have made this Christian walk a lot easier or at least appear as easy on social media.  

Since when did we as Christians think that we have to be perfect all of the time?

On social media every single day you see Christians posting about how perfect their lives are and they never have a bad day. Well I’ll be the first to say it, just because we are Christian that does not mean we have perfect lives, or we are perfect. When we think we are perfect, outcomes our religious side, and we put our nose in the sky like no one can touch us. Do you ever wonder why Christians get a bad name? We are the first ones to tell someone their sin, and not be aware of our own. That’s a bad place to be. “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?” (Matthew 7:3 NLT). “I used to go around on Instagram and Facebook and look for Christians who were sinning like me so I had something to justify my sin. Well that’s where I was wrong. Since when did other Christians hold the standard on how I am supposed to act? I was called to be like Christ; which I was not doing; which I STILL struggle with. Comparing myself to others is one of my biggest problems. I can sit all day long on social media and compare my self, to this and to that. “Oh I’m not reading the bible as much as her, oh I’m not going to church as much as them, oh my boyfriend and I do not have bible study every night.. BLAH BLAH BLAH” Okay? Does that mean God loves me any less than the person who never sleeps and reads the bible 24/7 and only listens to Christian music? NO WAY.

   

 “Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it” (Ephesians 2:9 NLT). So why do people on social media LOVE to point out how much better they are because they memorized 50 bible verses in 50 days? ).   Please sit down. AIN’T NO BODY GOT TIME FO DAT. God saved us because He loveddddd us.  “Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer[a]: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14 NLT).

  Were we not called to love? “This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.” (John 15:12 NLT) I’m sorry but, did I miss the part where God only loves us if we are perfect in every aspect of our life? Are any of us perfect? Do we even have the right to judge? No? Then we need to stop doing it. If we are perfect would we even need Jesus? God loves us and loved us even when we were still sinners. “God showed us His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8 NLT). Where did the thought of you have to clean up your act, before you approach God? That couldn’t be farther from the truth. God wants us to bring Him the good, the bad, and the HIDEOUS. So shake your pride off and come to the One who knows you better than you know yourself. Shake it off, Shake it off.

When we start focusing on our sin, we start to focus on ourselves rather than Jesus. I’ve been there and done that. So here is to not looking at our sin and looking at Jesus, who came to remove all of our sin, when we put our hope in Him. When we focus on Jesus, we can feel love, acceptance, and peace.

   

My prayer for everyone today is simple & sweet: Lord let us love ourselves right where we are because YOU love us right where we are. Let us continue to rest in your grace as you transform us to be the best that we can be. In Jesus Name AMEN.

“You don’t have to be good to be Jesus’s friend. You just have to be honest.”

― Judah Smith, Jesus Is ______: Find a New Way to Be Human