Lesson 39: Saturday Workouts

This morning I was running on the treadmill. I had been normally running about 2 miles every workout. Except today...I couldn't do it. I rarely work out on during the mornings. While I was running, I couldn't keep up with pace I set (and it's not that unrealistic). I walked more than usual. By the time I hit the one mile mark, I told myself, "well, I might as well just stop since I'm not going to make my goal." Then I thought of lots of reasons that I couldn't finish: tight calves, a morning workout, I hadn't eaten breakfast, I had to move out of my apartment after working out and needed energy for that...You probably get the point. I didn't want to finish because I lost focus, because I wouldn't meet my goal of 2 miles in 20 minutes, because I was thinking about everything else except that I wanted to do. My mind lost track of my purpose, my goal. I stopped.

Imagine if we did that with God. Gave up on Him every time we were uncomfortable. I know I've done that plenty of times. Quit on Him because of our circumstances. I am a goal getter, and history has shown that if I don't see myself attaining my goal, I quickly become a quitter...you know, so I don't fail. This is exactly what God does NOT want us to do with our relationship with Him. If we mess up, make bad choices, or just have bad things happen to us...that's not a reason to give up on God...there is never a reason.

I've learned that God does not require perfection from us. He is in control of that; not us.

"With one sacrifice He made perfect forever those who are being made holy" Hebrews 10:14

Here is what Max Lucado says about "perfection" and the verse above:

"God doesn't improve; He perfects. He doesn't enhance; he completes...Now I realize that there's a sense in which we are imperfect. We still err. We still stumble. We still do exactly what we don't want to do. And that part of us is, according to the verse, "being made holy". But when it comes to our position before God, we're perfect. When He sees each of us, He sees one who has been made perfect through the One who is perfect - Jesus Christ."