Perfect?

Everyone desires to be in God’s will. But God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will might not look the way you think it should. 

We need to clear up what we mean by perfect. Otherwise, we could miss out on God’s will altogether because we’ll be too busy chasing our own daydreams.

Our idea of perfect is perfect to us.
A perfect day to you might mean everything is going the way you think it should go.
A perfect marriage to you might be one that’s easy and stress-free.
A perfect job to you might be one where you’re high on the leadership pyramid and banking loads of cash.

Those aren’t bad things, but they’re not necessarily perfect to God. The point is that what’s perfect to God is also perfect for us. God’s will for you is to become everything He created you to be, so that you might glorify Him the way that He deserves. And that doesn’t necessarily require easy circumstances or perfect conditions.

God’s will doesn’t have to be perfect to me to be perfect for me.

God’s will for Job wasn’t perfect to him. He lost everything. But it was perfect for him. It brought him to a whole new level of faith and positioned him for a double portion of blessing later in his life.

God’s will for Joseph wasn’t perfect to him. He landed in slavery and prison for over a decade. But it was perfect for him. Through him, God saved his family and an entire nation.

God’s will for Paul probably didn’t seem perfect to anyone. Few men have ever suffered so much for the gospel. But it was perfect for him. Few men have ever spread the gospel so vastly in their lifetime.

God’s will for you might not always seem perfect to you. But trust me, His will is perfect for you.

The job you hate right now might not seem perfect to you. The relationship you just lost may not look like God’s perfect will to you. The disease you’re facing certainly doesn’t feel perfect to you.

But through it, God is perfectly developing your character, creating the space you need for the person that God created you to be. And along the way, He’s putting you in position to make Him look greater than ever before.

His will may not be easy, but it’s perfect for you.

*This post was adapted from Perfect for You, originally posted December 2, 2010.

This weekend, we had the privilege of sharing one of the most powerful testimonies we’ve ever seen at Elevation Church. Her story was so poignant, we built our entire worship experience around it. Meet Fasha Davis—living proof that God uses us to initiate the turning points that may actually save someone else’s life.

It’s inevitable. No matter what line of work you’re in or how much you love it. No matter how good you are at what you do. Sooner or later, you’re going to get into a funk.

It happens to everyone. The best authors experience seasons where they hate writing and are lucky to have one good sentence in a hundred pages. The most passionate musicians have days where they don’t even want to pick up their instrument.

While funks are unavoidable, we don’t have to resign ourselves to them. From my own experience, I have identified four responses we can take to combat being victims to these times of low inspiration.

1. Don’t extrapolate your future based on your funk. 
A natural tendency is to think that your funk is permanent. It’s a sign of a major change in performance or motivation that will never correct itself. It’s not. Don’t mistake momentary moods for permanent paradigm shifts. Your funk is only a small part of your story. Just turn the page and start your next chapter.

2. Give yourself the advice you’d give someone else.
Many times we know just what to say to other people when they’re in their own funks.

Go outside for a while. Escape from the prison of your own mind and emotions and do something nice for someone else.

And these things worked for them. That’s because they work for everybody.  Including you.

3. Don’t justify your funk.
Trying to find the source of your funk won’t make you feel any better about how you’re feeling. In fact, it will only lead you to wallow in self-pity, which does nothing but create a cycle of funks, which only leads to more self-pity and even deeper funks. If you let the same stories of funk repeat themselves, your overall story will never progress.

4. Work, don’t worry.
I’ve been saying this for a long time now—stop wasting time wondering whether or not your normal level of motivation will ever return. Work harder than ever, whether you feel like it or not. You can get back the motivation you didn’t have while working. You can’t get back the work you missed out on while you were waiting to feel motivated to do it.

If you’re in a funk right now, stay faithful to the work God has given you today. And praise Him the second your motivation catches up.

As you navigate the story that is unfolding in your life, you’ll be quick to find that discouragement is everywhere. It seems that the harder you run after God, the harder the devil is going to try to prevent you from getting where you’re going. And all he really has to do to trip us up is drop one little hint of discouragement in our ears.

You’re unworthy.

You’re a terrible father.

You’ll never be any better than this.

He’s said it to me and I know that he’s said it to you. The worst part is, the devil doesn’t necessarily speak in complete lies. He gives us half-truths with just enough reality to hit us between the eyes. But here’s an easy way that you can overcome those conniving schemes:

Finish the devil’s sermons.

It’s simple. The devil is only giving you half of the truth—give him the other half.

Yes, I am unworthy. I am absolutely nothing without Christ. But thankfully, He died so that I may become a new creation, void of you and full of the purpose that He has for my life.

No, I may not be a perfect father, but I am loved unconditionally by a perfect father who breathed the stars yet knows the number of hairs on my head. And He’s making me more like Him every day.

You’re right. on my own accord, I can’t do any better than this. But I am not doing this by myself—I serve the LORD, who is able to do immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine.

You don’t have to be Charles Spurgeon to preach the devil out of your life. The name of Jesus alone is enough to send your enemy running for the hills.

The devil will always try to show you the downside of your story. Make him pay. Show him who Jesus says you are.