"Alexa, what's my notification?"
"From Amazon, 'The Real God' has arrived."
My heart laughed. I mean, I actually laughed, but it felt like Alexa was giving me some spiritual encouragement, even though it was just a notification that my new book was delivered. But really, I needed it.
I'll be brutally honest for a moment. I'm in one of those seasons. You know, when there is less praying and more complaining. Less drawing near to God and more trying to figure things out on my own. But you wouldn't know it, if you were talking to me. I hate to say that.
There's ugly habit that when my faith is weak, I still put on the façade that things are okay. I'm sure I'm not the only one. I struggle DAILY with trying not to compare myself with other Christians I may follow on social media.
"They have it all together." "Their faith is so strong and alive." "I wish I could be like that."
But the fact is my idea of God, my idea of what faith should be like, isn't accurate. What I'm striving to be in my faith is futile, a dead-end, impossible. The "Perfect Christian" does not exist. And yet, I'm still "striving towards the goal" to be that "Perfect Christian"…but not towards Christ. I've blatantly created an idol of the "Perfect Christian" and my disdain for that idol--the one I want to be but also hate at the same time--has driven me away from the REAL source of my faith: Jesus.
So I bought that book, "The Real God." And honestly, at this point in my life, I have never been more ready for Him to arrive instead of believing my idea of him exists. HE exists. My idea of him does not. JESUS exists. The "Perfect Christian" does not.
He needs to be the source of my striving. He needs to be the center. Both the means and the end.
So the Real God has, in fact, arrived. When it comes to how I live my faith from here on out, Jesus is the only one I'm going to be looking towards.
"I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. But we must hold on to the progress we have already made." {Philippians 3:12-16 NLT}
