Why you’ll never be good enough

It’s funny how the simplest truth can get convoluted into something that means the opposite. But sometimes understanding the truth can mean the difference between living free and being completely miserable. 

How many people don’t want to talk to or even think about God because the act brings feelings of shame and inadequacy? How many think that you have to be good before you can come to God? Before you can darken the doors of a church?

When it comes to this topic, there are two false extremes: one is that God is a fierce, unmerciful deity who will never find you good enough. The other is that God is so full of love, that you can do anything and be anyone and it doesn’t make a whit of difference to Him. 

Such extreme opposing views can’t possibly both be correct. So what do you believe? Here’s the thing about truth: it’s NOT subjective. That means it’s not just what you, I, or Oprah decide that it is. It doesn’t contradict itself. Truth needs a standard. Something that has been unchanging, unwavering, and steadfast for thousands of years. 

That standard is the Bible. If you correctly study the Bible, you can see it assures us that those two views are distortions of the truth. Have you ever heard that the best lie has a little bit of truth in it? So here is breakdown: God is a fierce, strong deity who will never find you good enough. The Bible says ALL have sinned (Romans 3:23). Just because I’ve been a “good” churchgoing girl all my life doesn’t exempt me from this. If you think you’ve kept all the Ten Commandments without fail, check this out: Jesus said whoever looks at a woman with lust in his heart has committed adultery (Matt. 5:28). It’s not looking good for us. To understand the truth of humanity’s condition, you have to understand that we aren’t basically good. Our inclination is to be horribly evil. 

In fact, we CREATE suffering ourselves. Everyone always blames God for it, but it’s US!! We’re disgustingly, inexcusably depraved. God looks at the child-molesters, the dictators facilitating genocide, the dirty politicians cheating and stealing from people and he says, “I hate sin! Sin is killing the people I love!” God hates sin not because He’s some stuffy, far-removed being in a white tower somewhere, but because He watches from heaven and sees it destroy lives. He sees the broken woman selling her body for sex, the junkie who will do anything for his next fix, the wife whose lies to her husband are destroying her family, and His heart is broken. 

So why doesn’t He do something about it? He did!! You’ll never be good enough. Stop trying! God did something years ago that broke the power of sin and gave you freedom from the things that are destroying your life. God IS a God of love. That part is correct. But He can’t love you flawlessly with a love bigger, stronger, and more unconditional than anything you’ve ever encountered and let you keep your sin that is destroying you. That’s where Jesus comes in. You know what He did. God showed the greatest love ever manifested in history by surrendering His Son to death so that you can be free from the torture of sin and be His forever. 

When you finally accept this, believe it, confess it, walk it, breathe it, live it (Romans 10:9-10); then you start your legitimate journey towards perfection. No one this side of heaven is good, but when you walk with God He gives you victory over sin and transforms your life. It’s the only way to live. 

If this post stirred something inside of you, a longing you can’t exactly describe with words, it’s because you were made for heaven. God formed your inward parts and He knows you more than anyone. If you want to talk about it or have me pray for you, feel free to contact me here or comment at the end of the post.