IDEALS

Meditation

Luke 2:52—And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

The Bible tells us Jesus grew in four areas—intellectually, physically, spiritually and socially. What enabled Him to be perfect was more than His deity or the author of Hebrews could not write, “Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.” He was perfect because He chose each moment to submit to God’s will.

We approach that time of year when people love to make resolutions. How many times do we say or hear someone say, “I am going to lose 30 pounds” or “I am going to quit smoking!” This year I am going to read my Bible and pray every day, not get angry at my co-workers . . . In truth many become weary of the attempt to achieve anything! Why? Perhaps the problem is we focus on ideals and immediately our vision blurs. What we need to do is be faithful and that is where the battle comes in. We cannot change ourselves. Imperfection cannot create perfection—this is an impossibility. Only God can give us the strength to change, to be holy as He is holy. Therefore we must find out what it is He wants for us.

There is nothing wrong with goals or the setting of goals. But don’t have a cow over what is ideal. Strive rather to please God by learning to listen to His voice, by appropriating His power. Jesus didn’t come to complicate our lives and make us miserable. He came that we might have life and be stoked living it!

Inspiration

The world is sick of teachers and of ideals; the point is, have we ever lived up to any of our ideals? It is not more ideals we want, but the power to live up to what we know we ought to and don’t. It is shallowness, not ability, that makes people say we want more teaching and higher ideals . . .Jesus Christ does not add on burden to the lives of men; He imparts the power to live up to what we know we ought, that is the meaning of His salvation.—Oswald Chambers in The Highest Good