DO THESE THINGS (PART 1)

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

And now, my friends, good-bye! Strive for perfection.

2 Corinthians 13:11 GNT

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Paul was about to finish off his second letter to the Corinthians but he didn’t just want to sat “goodbye” and leave it at that. Instead, he decided to leave the believers in Corinth with five exhortations about how to go about living. We’ll look at these one at a time over the next five days beginning with this message. Here’s what Paul encouraged the Corinthians to do in 2 Corinthians 13, verse 11:

Strive for perfection.

Note that the key word here is “strive”. Paul isn’t telling the member of the Corinthian church to be perfect because that would be an unrealistic expectation. No one will ever be perfect because everyone is a sinner that falls short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23) but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t aspire to be perfect. This is what Paul is urging the Corinthians to do, to strive for perfection.

I really like this concept from a spiritual growth standpoint. For every day that the Lord blesses us with is a day to strive for improvement, to be a better version of ourselves as Christians as we were the day before. We should aim for Christian betterment today and then tomorrow commit ourselves to take the next step forward. Do this day after day after day and you end up becoming more and more like Jesus, the only One who has ever lived perfectly.

So how can we strive for perfection every day?

First of all, we should pray about it. That prayer might go like this:

Dear Lord, I long to be the person You want me to be, a person who is like Your Son Jesus. Help guide me today so everything I do might fulfill Your will. Teach me through the reading and study of Your word. And lead every moment of this day with Your Holy Spirit as I surrender every thought, word, and deed to You and Your way. Thank You Lord for your willingness to aid my growth and I’m excited about how You will mold and shape me toward Your image. Amen.

Once we pray, we should put the components of our prayer into practice and one of those components is the reading and study of the scriptures.

If we want to strive for perfection, to be the people the Lord wants us to be, we had better devote ourselves to His Holy Word. It really is our life instruction manual for Christian living and if we want to find out how we should do something, we should always go into the Bible for directions. We will never be left void when we do.

While we are reading the scriptures and as we try to live by them after, we need to receive the tutelage of the Holy Spirit which will always ensure we are doing the things the Lord wants us to do in the way that He wants them to be done. The Spirit will always be our constant companion as we strive for perfection.

Paul gave a command to the Corinthian church, demanding that they strive for perfection. As we read these words today, the exhortation remains the same as we live this Christian life.

We should dedicate ourselves to spiritual improvement each and every day, seeking to be more and more like Jesus.

We can pray and invoke the Lord’s help toward becoming the people He wants us to be.

We can read and study the Bible where we find the Lord providing us coaching us through His word.

And we can submit ourselves to the leading of the Holy Spirit, allowing it to drive our thoughts, control our words, and dictate our actions.

These actions will help us grow spiritually every day as Christians and make us better equipped to carry on the Gospel work that Jesus started.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at the importance of listening to the appeals of others.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com