Admit and Accept

Devotional Reading: You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:48 ESV

Have you ever held up a mirror to yourself and felt like you don’t meet the standards of the way you want to look? Do you see flaws in yourself that you don’t like? We often feel this way because we have an idea of what “perfect” is—and it’s not us.

Now, that ideal is most likely flawed, but when God holds up His character in front of us like a mirror, it reveals that we actually do have a lot of glaring moral imperfections. For example, God’s desires are never selfish or lustful, but we have to fight our selfish desires on a daily basis in many different areas—lust, greed, trying to get our way, fighting for control, wanting to take center stage.

When Jesus holds up the mirror of His character to us in Matthew 5, we find ourselves genuinely saying, Okay, Jesus, I get it. I cannot keep this perfect standard the heavenly Father has set for me. What do I do?

Jesus wants us to be honest and admit who we really are. If you are sick and deny it, how can you ever get better? It is not faith if you think it is. Faith is not a denial of reality. But if you humbly admit your need for God and accept the offer of His perfect Son, Jesus, to forgive you of your sins, and that He heals, He will make you perfect and whole. (Yes, perfect!) Also, another aspect of admitting and accepting is to admit your new identity which is that you’re forgiven and healed, and not by your doing but by you accepting the offer of His perfect son, Jesus.

Prayer and Confession
LORD, I admit that doing things my way to get your attention is never going to make me better. Jesus I accept your offer perfection only. Amen!

Further Reading: Matthew 5, Ephesians 5:1