Good Enough

Ladies, please humor me while I preach at myself today…

Our God is not a God of ‘good enough.’ How many things do we do and just think, ‘oh it’s good enough?’ We might compare ourselves to someone else and compared to them we are doing good! So it’s good enough.

Is it in the way we run our homes, or the work we do, or being a wife- helpmeet? Or in being a mother.

The good enough attitude is so prevalent in our society today, but it’s not the attitude that God wants us to have. He does not expect perfection, but He expects us to give all of ourselves to whatever it is that He has called us too. Especially to Him!

The Bible is all too clear that to do the work of God is to go against the grain of life. To be compassionate to the needy in His name, to seek His will for our lives, to enter into partnership with Him, to raise our kids in the ways of the Lord- it all is hard work!

Without constant effort against the tide of sin, we will find ourselves swept far from God and His ways. It’s not always by choice, but sometimes because of inactivity. We just get lazy. We think…oh , it’s good enough.

As we are pulled away from His presence, we cool just as a coal cools when taken from the fire. As we cool, we dishonor the name of God for whom we once burned!

Sometimes we can be guilty of thinking of God too much as our friend and not as the Holy God that He is!

He doesn’t want our ‘good enough’ He wants our all.

We used to live in an older home. It needed so much work. I remember wanting to paint my dining room. It had several layers of wallpaper on the walls. It needed to be torn off and have the walls repaired and put the primer on and then the paint.

Oh no, that would have taken too much time, I just painted right over that wallpaper. Well, at first it was fine, it was good enough. However, as time went on you could see that it really was horrible. You could see the seams and the wallpaper buckling and it looked awful.

Eventually I had to do it right and go through all the steps. It was a ton of work, but when done right it looked great and added value to the home.

Sometime we make things seem ‘good’ on the outside but really there are layers that need to torn off under the nice pretty paint job.

How many times have we had to choose between serving God or serving ourselves?
Doing what He wants us to do or doing what we want to do?

This is a test in it’s truest form; serve God and deny yourself or serve yourself and deny God.

I have been in this position more often then I care to admit, but can say this first hand. The blessings I receive when serving the Lord far out weighed the miniscule moment of feeling good when serving myself.

John 14:15-16
15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command.
NIV

1 John 2:3-6
3 We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands.
4 The man who says, "I know Him," but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But if anyone obeys His word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in Him:
6 Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.
NIV

Heb 5:8-10
8 Although He was a son, He learned obedience from what he suffered (that's powerful!)
9 and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him
NIV

I can remember a time when I asked my son to clean his bedroom. He was in there for an hour. He came out of his room with a beautifully drawn picture for me! He was so proud. I asked if he had cleaned up his room and he said, “No Mommy, but I drew you a picture!” As sweet as that was, it wasn’t obedience.

Sometimes I do the same thing…God tells me what to do and I come up with a much better idea!

Partial obedience is disobedience.

Lord help me (us) to get beyond, GOOD ENOUGH and give You our best!