God Wants our Yes, Not Our Perfection
The modern social-media world we live in is fast paced. Five minutes on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, and you’ll suddenly feel like you’re not doing enough. Your blog following isn’t big enough, or your dinners aren’t beautiful enough. Your kids’ crafts aren’t crafty enough, or your house isn’t magazine worthy. It can be a defeating space that makes you think you aren’t enough. Your screens and feeds yell out that if you aren’t doing these things, you’re squandering your gifts or opportunities. Worse, maybe you think you never had gifts and opportunities to begin with.
But that is a lie.
We may think we have to meet Pinterest perfection to matter in the world or for the Lord to accomplish His purposes through us. But maybe, just maybe, the expectations we have and the “callings” we’re following are an on-ramp to dissatisfaction with ourselves, our lives, or even our relationships with the Lord.
Maybe we think being obedient looks like a whole lot of work. But what God wants most are our yesses of obedience, not our perfection in execution.
Ecclesiastes 4:6 says, “Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.” Isaiah 45 repeats the sentiment and reminds us where we are in the pecking order of the heavens:
Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,
a pot among earthen pots!
Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’
or ‘Your work has no handles’? …
I made the earth
and created man on it;
it was my hands that stretched out the heavens,
and I commanded all their host. (vv. 9, 12)
When we know the character of our good God, walking in His words and treasuring His commands, we receive wisdom, understanding, and blessing. If we’re following the Lord and being obedient to the things He is asking us individually to do, we won’t ever actually miss out on anything good that He has for us.
Did you get that?
When we walk in obedience to the Lord, we won’t ever actually miss out on anything that He has for us.
When we start thinking about obedience in that way, it not only begins to not feel wild or even hard, but it also becomes necessary for full living … for free living.
At the Allume conference last year, an attendee came up and thanked me for the work put into such a large event. She asked, “How are you so brave?”
I clearly remember being shocked at the question and saying, “Brave, nothing. I’m just wanting to be obedient.”
The thing I’ve been learning about obedience is that it has everything to do with following. Obedience doesn’t mean just setting goals and doing what we have to do to reach them. It’s about curiosity, faithful listening, and following through. It’s about a lot of yeses to the small things and the hard things.
Obedience is about diligence to pursue God’s heart, not our purposes. It has everything to do with following and nothing to do with striving.
Blessings,
Logan Wolfram
Logan Wolfram would give you full access to her pantry if you lived next door. She is a plate-juggling mom and interior decorator turned author, speaker, and host of the Allume Conference. She is a passionate leader who desires to see women live fully in Christ. Her first book, Curious Faith; Rediscovering Hope in the God of Possibility released March 1, 2016 with David C Cook publishing house. Logan and her husband, Jeremy, divide their time between wrangling two inquisitive boys and a 175-pound dog named Titan. They reside in Greenville, South Carolina. Connect more with Logan on her website www.LoganWolfram.com
Share this post:
