Devotional for Tuesday, May 2, 2017
“The Snare of Perfection”
by Dona Hake
As a very young believer I can remember having conversations with my Father about his spiritual condition. He did not know the Lord and his first and biggest reason was he felt he did too much wrong in his past, and God would never accept him in light of his many failures. Over and over I would try to tell him that God is forgiving and He was able to wash his past clean and give him a fresh start.
You see my Father was a perfectionist. Everything had to be exact and perfect. He was a very intelligent man yet the perfectionist thing became his snare. The Lord had showed me many times that because of this snare, his conversion to Christ would be on his death bed, and sure enough it was. Sitting beside him in his final hours of life he laid motionless and very unresponsive. I was growing weary and hopelessness was beginning to try to grip my heart. I thought how can I communicate with him now since he is almost in a non responsive state of mind and his body was not moving. Quietly I whispered in his ear, “This is it Daddy, you have very little time…you are going to die…if you want me to pray with you…do something…flutter your eyes…just give me some way of knowing you want me to pray” Many moments passed and then I was stunned as I saw him slowly moving his hand toward me to embrace mine. It was his way of communicating that he wanted me to pray.
I will never forget how precious he was as I looked into his eyes and I asked him if he knew Christ. I held a picture of Jesus in front of his face and said, “Do you know Him now?” My father nodded and indeed my heart was full of joy to know that when he took his final breath that he went to be with Jesus. Did he leave a perfect life behind? Absolutely not. Did he leave forgiven? Absolutely yes!!! His thoughts of thinking his life had to be perfect robbed him of his life on earth. I encourage you today to know that God is not looking for you to be perfect. He is looking for the heart that knows that it has need of Him and His forgiveness!
Psalm 103:12 (CEB)
As far as east is from west—