Psalm 119:96 Wednesday

"To all perfection I see a limit; but your commands are boundless." Psalm 119:96

I found this verse a long time before I realized what it meant. I would say it was on the back-burner stewing for a period of years before that ah-ha moment came when the Spirit said “Now listen!” I knew that for us, as sinners, perfection was impossible, even though my mind wasn’t convinced I couldn’t be. I just couldn’t see the connection between the two clauses until finally one day the Spirit spoke. This is what He said:

Teresa, you are limited in how perfect you can be, but you're not limited in what you can do for ME. His will is boundless (some versions say “broad”) in that you will never run out of things to do for God plus his will covers everything you cannot be.

"To all perfection I see a limit," is totally looking inward with both eyes on me; "but your commands are boundless" is looking outward with both eyes on God.

I have suffered from depression most of my life. I really can’t look back far enough to see a time when I didn’t, even down to today. It’s my “thorn” that God uses to keep me close to Him and, like Paul, to keep me from becoming conceited. Depression, as I have learned, "often symbolizes that you’re holding on to an unattainable goal." And my unattainable goal was perfection. It just wasn’t going to happen. And what I thought was going to happen if I, through my own efforts, became perfect, was exactly the opposite of what God wanted to happen. The only way God’s strength could be made PERFECT in me, was for me to admit my weakness. I had not realized that to think I could be perfect was the epitome of arrogance. I still cringe when I remember how I felt when I realized how arrogant I had been.

God stripped me of all my “perfection” and arrogance by throwing me into the pit of depression. Yes, I still suffer from depression, but nothing like then. He stripped me of me, so he could mold me and make me from the ground up. This is what “Up from the Pit” the video series I taped is all about. All eight videos are based on Mark 4:35-41 where Jesus calms the storm. There is an often overlooked phrase I want to mention here, that’s found in verse thirty-six. “Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat.” The phrase is “just as he was.” When Jesus goes with us, so does perfection – His perfection, not mine. And it’s so obvious, yet something I want to point out, if I take Jesus along just as He is, then He also takes me along just as I am. If Jesus is with me always, even to the very end of the age, then I am always in the face of perfection. He is being perfect for me; so I don’t have to be. That is what grace is.

God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. He gives me everything because I have nothing. I am nothing without Him. Even my RIGHTEOUS acts are but filthy rags.

When I realized what Dr. Pfohl had told me, that “perfection is not a goal it is a disorder” I realized that by trying to live perfectly on my own, I had actually kept Jesus out. I was so full of myself there was no room left for him. I had to empty myself of myself so Christ could live in me.
GRACE: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense—such a simple acronym but so true. “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.” Rom. 8:3-6

Jesus condemned sin, not me. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…” and when I realized, really realized what that meant, I felt the chains fall off and gave myself permission to be me, less than perfect. I took my eyes off myself and started fixing my eyes on Jesus.

(part three)