We must be confident that we can be perfect. Do not regard God as if He were lying. If God says, “You must be perfect“; “Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers,”; “Be holy as I am holy, do not touch what is unclean”; “You are called not to do what is defiled, live as those without blemish and blameless,” then all of that can be realized and is not nonsense. When we regard God’s standard of holiness as our life goal, we will mourn as we see the great distance between our present condition and the standard God requires.
Do not make any human being your life’s mirror; Jesus alone is our life’s mirror. Though we, as ministers, should reflect Christ, Christ remains our standard. If we truly love God and continue to struggle for perfection, even amid falls and recoveries, we bring those failures before God with lament—and this is the sorrow God desires. It is as if we say, “This time I sinned. Tomorrow I will not. Give me a chance to live a holy life. Trust me not to sin again, even though I might fall into the same error.” In those words is deep sorrow, but behind that sorrow is a strong resolve to change. God is pleased with such an attitude. Yet our flesh often says, “For such a small thing, there’s no need to cry.”
But even small lies and hidden pride we must deeply regret, because we desire to be holy and pure in all things. All testimony and testimony-tales must not be added to or diminished. If we are wrong, we must bring it before God and ask forgiveness. God delights when we struggle, fall, rise, and become more determined to be perfect.
Each of us must have a mirror to see God’s holiness. We must continually learn to be honest, as in Psalm 139:23–24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any wrong way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Many of us unconsciously desire the world: feeling unsettled without a house, feeling less prestigious if the car is inferior, or loving someone or something more than we love God. When we become obsessed with something and no longer see God’s plan in our lives, that is a miss—spiritual adultery.
Make God the most precious Person in our lives. We must truly make God the aim of our lives. We must love God more than our own lives. We need to give time to be still before Him. If you have an hour of prayer, do not fill it only with shouting “hallelujah,” but also set aside time to be still. This is the art of prayer: speaking and conversing with God, “Lord, I seek Your face. Speak to me. If there is something wrong in my life, please make me understand.”
When we pray, “Lord, forgive my sins that I am unaware of and that I do not know,” that phrase may be said after truly examining ourselves. Do not, without self-examination, say, “Lord, forgive all my sins.” Which ones? “All those I know and do not know.” Such an attitude can make us irresponsible. We should search and examine ourselves to the maximum. After scrutiny, then we may say, “If there remains anything wrong, whether I know it or not, forgive me, O Lord.” For deliberate sins, we should already be aware without God having to point them out. For inadvertent sins, God will reveal them.
Often, we do not want to know. Even sins we are aware of, we do not confess or confront, let alone those we are unaware of. One reason the Devil cannot be forgiven is that he cannot be corrected. If we can still ask forgiveness, it means we can still be corrected. Therefore, we must absolutely provide time to be before God, examine ourselves, and make room for prayer. We must be honest with ourselves and not be people of hidden pride. When we are honest before God, the Holy Spirit will help us. We will be amazed at how sins we formerly did not notice become apparent. We will marvel that God still chooses to use us, sinners. Therefore, we must be willing to learn and willing to be made righteous.