Devotionals

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The first time Tiger Woods tried to play golf, he missed the ball
and instead hit an ant hill with ants flying in every direction. One
ant said to the other "If we're going to get out of this alive, 'we'd
better get on the ball'."

There is a challenging statement of Jesus in Matt. 5:48 (nlt), "You
are to be perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect." Well,
that puts me out of the running because I'm far from perfect. You
may be a lot more perfect than me, but even you don't have much
of a chance at being totally perfect.

If we can't live up to that standard, what hope is there? First of all,
that declaration by Jesus is to set a standard, a goal, a target at
which to aim. It doesn't mean that we are predisposed to go
straight to Hell if we can't meet the standard. Lots of lofty goals
are unattainable, but that doesn't mean we don't try.

Tiger Woods, I'm sure, is always striving to play the perfect golf
game -- that's his goal. If he has a poor day, does he give up? Of
course not, and neither should we give up in our constant attempt
to emulate the perfect nature of God.

The good news for the Christian is that God looks at our
imperfection (sin) through the red filter of the blood of Christ and
the filter blots out our sin from His view. As my teenage reader
friend says, "Whooee!!" Set your target high and keep striving.

Dave †

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