My Strength & My Shield / psm28:7

4 - I'm a Christian, but I ain't Perfect

When you're a Christian, many judge you by the standards of perfection. I have a little something to share. I may be a Christian, but I ain't perfect. I'm going to mess up, make mistakes, hurt people I love, mouth-off and shoot the bird at a cop on I-20. (I only got away with it because he was after someone more deserving than me; but honestly, I had no idea it was a cop flashing his high beams on and off behind me. I thought it was some crazy lunatic.) 

You see... my old self... the one I was supposed to have died to - the person I was before I became a Christian - well that person is always going to be a part of me. I try to avoid her. But sometimes she resurfaces at the most inopportune times, and I follow in her old, familiar footsteps and do dumb, really un-Christian-like things (like that night on I-20). So what makes me different than a non-believer? 

That's easy... my savior. He's there to forgive me when I mess up. He's there to help direct me when I'm tempted by the devil. He's there to comfort me when life really sucks. He's there to humble me through times when others step in and carry my burden. He's with me every step of the way in this life of mine even when I can't feel His presence, and the knowledge of knowing He's there, accepting He's there and counting on Him to stay beside me... I think that's what makes me different from a non-believer. But hear me in this... different, not better. 

As a Christian, I don't have to rely on me. Now trust me on this. (I know - Trust No One - Thank you, Chris Carter). You see, I'm like most every other red-blooded American who likes to be in control of my life; who likes to make my own decisions that affect me and my family and likes to feel like I can do it all. "Wake up!" You and I both know, I really can't (or you really can't). I can't control it all. (What about you?) I can't make every decision that affects me, and I can't do everything that needs to be done. I mean, who can? 

Fortunately, I don't have to. He's always with me no matter what. Even when I do stupid things like I did on I-20. 

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. (1 John 4:16) 

For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death. (Romans 7:19-23)