Excellence, Perfectionism, and The Full Blessing of God – Purity 1742
Purity 1742 08/22/2025 Purity 1742 Audio Podcast
Purity 1742 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a small boardwalk path leading to a tropical beach, between a pair of palm trees, and a few scattered lounge chairs, comes to us from an unknown FB friend who shared this scene on social media back on August 18th, 2020. If this memory is yours let me know and I will photo-credit you on the blog after the fact and also ask why you didn’t arrange those chairs to stage your vacation paradise scene more perfectly.
Well, it’s Friday and it is my hope that our unknown friend was too busy enjoying the moment to think about impressing others by staging their view of paradise. It was 2020, after all, and maybe they were so ecstatic about being on vacation that they weren’t concerned with what anyone else thought about what they were presenting.
Similarly, it is my hope that those of us who have put our faith in Jesus aren’t too overly concerned with presenting a picture-perfect presentation of the Christian life as much as they are concerned with being surrendered to God’s will for their life. I think one of the biggest problems that the modern church has is its tendency to be overly concerned with “optics” and trying to sell themselves to the world at large as a hip or cool option for living rather than being the place where we lay our lives down for the cause of Christ – to love God above all things and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, rather than being overly concerned with impressing them.
As Christians we want to attract people to the church, but we also don’t want to give them a false impression of what the Christian faith is about or become overly concerned with presenting well or “being perfect” to the point that we stop being real or genuine in expressing the Christian disciple’s purpose to follow Jesus beyond a surface deep appearance. We don’t just want to look good, but we want to represent the One – God – who is good.
The concept of Christian excellence, which in its biblical context, means to strive to reflect God’s character through diligent effort and integrity in all aspects of life for God’s glory rather than for personal gain, can easily be corrupted by the pride of “perfectionism” where we can become exhausted in our efforts to do everything right and begin to criticize ourselves or anyone else who when our performance is anything less than stellar. When our desire for excellence becomes more about ourselves or a religious standard, pride replaces grace and performance-based religion replaces the genuine relationship with God that a surrendered life of a disciple longs for.
Speaking of surrender, the In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanely devotion speaks about the surrendered life and I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage us to “be real” in our commitment to follow Christ. Charles Stanley writes:
“God’s Condition for His Full Blessing
It’s your choice: Will you trust Christ enough to accept His will for your life?
The Lord wants to give each of us an abundance of blessings. Today’s passage clarifies the one necessary condition for receiving His best: surrender. Every aspect of our being—body, soul, and spirit—is to be a living sacrifice.
In the Old Testament, sacrifice was commonplace. To atone for sin, a person could bring an animal to the altar. It was set apart for God’s purposes as a holy offering, and through its death, restitution was made.
When we give ourselves as a sacrifice, there is, thankfully, no need for our blood to be shed. Jesus died to atone for all of our sin. So, out of love and gratitude, every aspect of our life should be dedicated to Him.
What does a surrendered life entail? Most importantly, it involves commitment to Christ. God’s Spirit guides us, and His will is the goal. Yielding to Him means following His way in attitude, words, thoughts, and deeds—and doing so unapologetically, unwaveringly, and fearlessly.
Complete surrender is not an easy road; it means dying to your desires and selfishness. But remember that the Lord is willing and able to do more than we can ever imagine (Ephesians 3:20).” – Charles Stanley
Amen. Lately I have been sharing a lot of David Jeremiah’s Turning Point Ministries devotions, and I would encourage you all to check out today’s offering on Deliverance because it’s a good one but I decided to share Stanley’s message today because I believe that our decision to surrender to the Lord’s way for our lives leads to the blessing of deliverance that so many desperately hope for.
God delivers sinners from the judgement when they surrender to the Lordship of Christ, but even through His common grace and mercy God delivers people from harm and bondage. Because of God’s love for all mankind, He will often bless the nonbeliever alongside of His faithful through the events of history or when the nonbeliever “surrenders” to the general principles of life that are founded and established by God’s word.
Even the nonbeliever can be blessed by acts of repentance and forgiveness. When nonbelieving addicts turn away from their bad habits, they are sometimes delivered from their addictions. Why? Because God wants people to be free and even though they may never bow the knee to Christ, they could receive the blessings of God’s common grace that is evident in God’s created order. Likewise, the nonbeliever can be free of the bondage of bitterness to some extent when they “surrender” to God’s wisdom of forgiveness.
I am sure we have all encountered some “nonbelievers” that seem genuinely kind, and we can make sense of this because of God’s common grace. These kind “heathens” have unknowingly “surrendered” to biblical principles and have benefited from the cause-and-effect relationships that God has established.
However, to experience the full blessing of God – it’s not enough to surrender in part, to receive the full blessing of God we need to not only surrender to His principles, we have to fully surrender to His plan for our redemption – to put our faith in Jesus AND to follow His example in the way we live our lives.
In my experience in recovery ministry, I have unfortunately seen countless examples of people who want to be set free but who stop short in their surrender to the Lord.
Some have surrendered to the idea of sobriety and a general concept of a higher power but refuse to put their faith in Jesus. These “pagan overcomers” may be free of a certain substance but generally are still in bondage to sexual immorality, other less lethal substances, or their own pride. They often speak in terms of “MY recovery” and will unfortunately take their victory over their addiction all the way to hell. They may stand as someone who supposedly “conquered their demons” on earth but will only prove to be an example as Satan’s counterfeits in eternity.
I have also seen Christians – people who have put their faith in Jesus – who have failed to receive the full blessing of surrender because they may have bowed the knee to Jesus as Savior but haven’t made Him Lord certain areas of their lives. I have seen Christians get set free of alcohol or drugs but who are still in bondage to sexuality immorality and vice versa. I have seen Christians who can proudly claim to have never given into drunkenness or obvious sexual sin but who are in bondage to food, or depression, or anger, or fear.
The word tells us that perfect love casts out fear and it also says that love covers a multitude of sins, and it is only through a full surrender to God that we will be able to experience the full blessing of these spiritual realities.
So, if you want deliverance, from sin, from broken relationships, or just from bad circumstances, let me encourage you to step towards the full blessing that God has for your life by progressively and continuously adopting a mindset and lifestyle of full surrender to God.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/.
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.
(While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling By John G. Kruis on Amazon )
This morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Peace – Rest.
Matthew 11:28–30 (NIV) Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Today’s verses fall under the first point of our counseling reference guide resource section on Peace – Rest.
1. Christ gives peace and rest to all who come to him in faith.
Today’s Bible verses are Jesus’ invitation to all of us to surrender and to find our rest in Him.
There is so much love in Christ’s call to us. He recognizes our plight. He sees our pain. He longs to help us. This is God meeting the human condition with kindness and compassion.
To hear these words and to not be stirred to follow Him, oh the sadness of being unable to trust Him and to accept His love and leadership. May it never be.
Our surrender to the Lordship of Christ is the pathway to peace and it is the way that we can be fully and yet continually restored. So never stop seeking Jesus Christ and the rest He has for you.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “Day by Day Along the Way” By Jay E. Adams.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Adams’ books for your own private study and to support the late author’s work. This resource is available online for less than $20 at many sites.
Day 241
And the one who doesn’t have a sword should sell his coat and buy one.
Luke 22:36
What an interesting missionary text! Did you ever hear a missions sermon from it? Neither have I. Why not? Possibly, because the leaven of modern Sadducees has filtered into the true church. Who are they, you ask? The liberals and the do-gooders who don’t believe in fighting of any sort. There is clearly no place for pacifism in this text; Jesus is plainly telling the disciples to wear a sword when they travel for Him preaching the Gospel. Why? The roads they would travel were full of footpads, like those who beat and robbed the man that the Good Samaritan helped on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho (Luke 10:30–36). They were to buy swords in order to defend themselves! They would not use them as Muslims do—to force men to surrender to Allah, or be killed. But clearly, Jesus believed that it isn’t wrong to defend yourself.[1]
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[1] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 249.
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