Saturday, April 26, 2014

Imperfect Children of God

Joh 1:14  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Our Savior- full of GRACE and TRUTH.

Throughout our lives we come face to face with circumstances that will define us in minute ways. How exactly do we become what we are?  It isn't all about being a product of our environments because some seem to rise above their adverse upbringings while others succumb to them, even going on to promote the adversity in the next generation.

When we are born, we are truly unique beings already established with various traits that slowly make themselves known. An infant with a quick temper?  Don't all infants have quick tempers? No, frankly, they do not. Mischiviousness, stubborness, silliness, kindness, these traits can be readily seen in babies.  It is so easy to see how individual we are from birth once you have a child of your own. Otherwise it is easy to stand on the outside and contemplate why the parents are letting their babies have bad tempers, or be stubborn.  It truly isn't a matter of 'letting' a child have their own personalities replete with good tendencies as well as not so good tendencies, they are given them by birth, formed in the womb truly with their personalities as individual as their appearance. Parents can shape personalities, meaning they can comprehend the child has their own quirks and if they are undesirable quirks it's in the child's best interest to try and find ways to guide that quirk so it doesn't become a detriment to them as they are maturing. Quirk guiding however is just that, it's learning to channel the quirky behavior in ways that help offset the quirk. Truly, people cannot, without destroying most that is good within a child, absolutely change a bad tendency, they cannot, I should say, get rid of that tendency.  There are parents that harm their children until that child learns to bury the part of themselves that is detrimental to them. Burying a trait because the trait causes you to be abused, doesn't automatically form a 'better' child. The outside of the child may appear to have been corrected, but the inside can be damaged in ways far more awful than the trait they were born with ever could be. No, I'm not talking about discipline and correction being wrong, but abuse is definitely wrong.

What does all this have to do with the Bible verse above?

Our Savior was born full of grace and truth, and our Savior offers us grace and truth when we are born again in Him.

We are all products of our upbringings. We are all born into imperfect worlds that from the start seem to poke at us, teasing us into letting out all the defects of our characters. We are born imperfect and raised imperfect and this alone can allow us to realize our need of the PERFECT SAVIOR.

The child who is being raised by parents with the best of intentions of turning out a well adjusted mature adult some day, will still turn out riddled with imperfections. There are no perfect parents, but there are imperfect parents with the best of intentions. There are also imperfect parents without the best of intentions, whose only desire is for the child they are raising to simply not bug them while they go about their own lives- sad, but true.

Our children are NOT extensions of ourselves, but they are influenced by us. We can treat them as if they are part of us, and all that matters is they don't embarass us, but we fail them when we do that. Our children are gifts that are entrusted to us. And as any precious gift, we need to take care to see that it remains undamaged if at all possible by our imperfect caregiving. Most importantly, we need to guide our children towards the only hope we have, the Perfect Savior. We need to teach our children that we have to go to our Perfect Savior and confess our imperfections, repenting of them truly because we do not desire that that imperfections of our characters dominate our lives. We will find forgiveness for our imperfections- whatever they may be, the ones we are born with and form our personalities, they too must be repented of, not excused and accepted simply because we were born that way.  If we go that route then we can take it all the way to the point of saying we are victims born in sin so we must embrace the sins we are born to live in and simply accept them never caring that each sin separates us further from God.

God knows the adversity we are born into and every person has been given a way out- Jesus Christ.  Will our Savior make it so we never sin again? Ultimately, yes. Through Him and His GRACE, His MERCY, His LOVE, His RIGHTEOUSNESS, He will take from us all that promotes the sin in us and replace it with Himself, letting HIS righteousness become ours and when He returns for those who are His, we will NEVER ever have a single tendency to sin within us, it will be gone, all by HIS POWER to forgive and cleanse us, all through GRACE.

Right now we may not be able to imagine living sinlessly because each day the sin tendencies within us seem more and more apparant, but one day it will happen.  All the terrible imperfections in our thoughts, in our actions, in our hearts will be revealed and forgiven because they've been revealed and we have repented of them to our Savior.  Over and over again we may need to endlessly repent and throw ourselves on the mercy of our Savior, but we must NEVER despair of doing so, because if we despair of seeing the PERFECTION created in us ONLY by our SAVIOR, we have no hope. If we despair then we are secretly believing that we can somehow create the perfection ourselves, that we can give it to ourselves and we've failed to do so. We can NEVER create perfection in ourselves but we CAN ALWAYS submit to the ONE who can be, and is, perfect for us and is willing to keep us in Him until He can change us into incorruptible beings, beings without any guile, perfect as HE is perfect.

1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
1Jn 3:3  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

1Pe_5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

Heb 13:20  Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
Heb 13:21  Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Col_1:28  Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus

Joh_17:23  I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

Our Savior is full of GRACE and TRUTH, and it's to HIM we go for all things!

Guide us to YOU,  Savior.  Let us LIVE IN YOU, and YOU LIVE IN US so that we may be YOURS in LOVE. 

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