Filling The Gap

Be good to your servant,
    that I may live and obey your word.
Open my eyes to see
    the wonderful truths in your instructions.
I am only a foreigner in the land.
    Don’t hide your commands from me!
I am always overwhelmed
    with a desire for your regulations. Psalms 119: 17-20

One of the first things I tried to do when I became born again was give up something for lent. The funny thing was I was never successful.  I would slip up somewhere along the line, and eat the chocolate cake, or I would have that night out where the cheesecake looked too good.  Eventually, I would give in.  Then one year, I put it all together and found success!  There was so much joy in my heart that I enjoyed cheesecake that year much more!  In retrospect, each passing year where I failed, I also learned something from my failures.  I realized to avoid certain places, or had greater will power to never ‘give up.’  I was overwhelmed with a desire to make it.  The whole thing reminded me about reading a section of a book that talked about ‘failure.’  It noted that we look at failure as something to avoid.  However, many people view failure as an opportunity.  Their failure was not because they did not plan well or perform at their best.  It was because they were missing something, and thus, their quest was to look at the gap between what they wished to accomplish and where they ended up.  They had lofty expectations where they learned a great deal about themselves striving to become something they would not ordinarily grow to become.  It was the gap that became the key to their finding greater energy and ambition to make the final changes and adjustments to achieve their goal.

This is what spiritual growth with God sounds like.  We see the perfection of His son Jesus Christ, and we try so hard to meet that lofty expectation, but we often fall short.  We should see our failures as opportunities to learn about God’s plan and grow from it. In reading David’s 119^th Psalm, I was struck by his passion to truly learn about God’s purpose for his life.  I noted that he prayed to live and obey His word.  The key word here was ‘may.’  This was an acknowledgement that he studied and focus on God, but he was not always perfect.  He hoped that he was following God’s word.  Additionally, he was overwhelmed with desire to learn more.  Thus, he further understood the ‘gap’ between where he was and where God wanted him.

This is incredibly powerful for us when we are focusing on our own spiritual growth. We will fail.  We will not always hit the mark.  However, we must not be deterred by the loftiness of our goals to become followers that Jesus Himself would be proud of.  Thus, we must look at Christ’s example and see where the ‘gaps’ are.  Then continue to adjust and make changes that will make us more in His likeness.  This can be both scary and challenging.  However, as Hebrews 12:2 says, “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.”

God is very intentional in His pursuit of us. He sets the stage and moves things so that we know of His presence, and He provides protection, comfort, inspiration, and of course love to solidify that relationship.  Is it no wonder that we should be “overwhelmed with a desire” to know more of Him.  That is what a true growing and loving relationship is like.  Famous football coach Vince Lombardi said to his team once, “Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence.”  This is exactly what being a Christ follower is all about.  Let us ‘chase’ Christ in such a way that truly honors Him.  Where is your obsession to learn more of God’s word?  How will to continually raise the bar to be more like Jesus?  My prayer is that we are honest with ourselves and are overwhelmed with desire to fill the gap between our ways and God’s.  Amen.