character vs gift
“Therefore, you must be perfect (growing to full maturity of godliness in mind and character, reaching the proper height of virtue and integrity), just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” –Matthew 5:48
When I first joined a particular church, I was amazed by the fact that they didn’t care what I did. Don’t get me wrong – living righteously and acting with excellence were certainly part of the Church’s mentality. But it was an issue of my heart and not how well I could perform.
But through this process I realized that a lot of my self-esteem was built on how well I could accomplish something – it was built on my gifts. This resulted in my self-confidence as a person being weakened because, often, I was mediocre at many things. As I hung out with people who encouraged me to be the person I was, the person I was becoming in God, all those little insecurities began to fall away. This did not mean that I would not face setbacks, difficulties, and pain, but it did mean that I was being tough on the inside, so that God could do greater work on the outside.
Many times we believe that people love or accept us only for what we can do rather than our value as a person. This is true in the world. But this is a false pretense in the state. “God so loved the world…” He respects no one. We are saved by grace, through faith. Sometimes we can live at the other extreme where tasks are not important, or without excellence tasks are not as important. But it starts from the heart. It starts with love.
God calls us to work with excellence. But He is also about bringing us closer to the person He wants us to be: free from worry, shame, doubt, fear, persecution, anger and all the things we struggle with in our humanity. That doesn’t mean we won’t experience those things. But it begins to operate from the heart, from our character, and it sets the direction for all the rest of our actions.
Who are you? What kind of person has God made you? May God encourage you in your character today.
