Mom's Devotional Bible
Let’s Sidetrack Perfectionism
Additional Scripture Readings: 2 Samuel 22:33; Romans 5:10
When Caesar Ritz opened his Ritz Hotel in Paris in 1898, this fastidious man sat at every table in the dining room, measured its height to the exact centimeter and adjusted the legs if needed. He slept in each bed in the hotel, one per night, and threw out the mattress if he didn’t sleep well. Caesar Ritz was a perfectionist.
How many of us are perfectionists? We so often get hung up on serving a regimen of perfectionism rather than serving the God of grace. When our eyes are focused on our unattainable standards of performance, we miss his best for us. We are, in effect, rewriting his requirements.
When Paul writes that God will present us “holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation” (Colossians 1:22), he doesn’t mean that we must somehow, some way, make ourselves perfect. That’s God’s job. But God promises that one day, through the grace of Jesus’ death on the cross, we will stand perfect before him.