Saying we please the Father is easy to say, but not easy to do. If a child says “I love you” to their parents but has not shown it through actions, that parent–child relationship is not yet mature or high-quality. As the child grows and understands their parents, they can share in their parents’ burdens and do what their parents desire to prove their love.
We must address our condition of not yet being what God desires and be willing to be shaped. However, for some, this feels abstract because they have not struggled to become persons who please the Father. Instead, their lives are filled with self-pleasure—an almost permanent rhythm of “What’s life for if not to please myself?”—which many people live by.
Now we study Scripture and realize we were not created as free agents without purpose. Adam and Eve were made to do the Father’s will. God calls us to reach the target He desires. Adam had to choose: to be perfect or to miss the mark. Missing the mark does not make a human an animal—they remain human. Humans can still do good after the fall—in the sense of following laws humanly—but cannot perfectly fulfill the Father’s will. The cross reopens the possibility for us to become perfect.
Each of us has different targets; to whom much is given, much is required. Someone who repents at sixty is not in the same place as one who repented as a child and was guided early. Now we are called to be humble, to feel we lack the condition God wants, so we keep moving and striving. Do not lock your spiritual growth with “I cannot be perfect,” for everyone must strive as fully as possible toward the perfection God desires, whoever we are.
Do not listen to the slander that says we cannot be perfect. One person’s perfection differs from another’s, but all must reach the maximum each can achieve. We want to be a community on God’s intended path, leaving ordinary human normalcy and putting on the pure truth Jesus taught amid life’s waves and the world’s chaos. We hold to God’s truth with high integrity. We need not argue with those who disagree—not out of fear of debate, but because we believe conduct, deeds, and speech prove one’s theology.
This is why some do not feel poor before God: because their main goal is not perfection. However, striving for perfection—pleasing God fully—must be our central purpose. When we place this at the heart of our lives and direct all our efforts toward it, we begin to grasp true freedom. Only by making perfection our guiding objective do we understand the meaning of freedom. We must boldly declare this as our reason for living and always aim for that high standard.
Thus, we will always feel poor in God’s eyes. When we need God, it will not be for food, drink, health, or other physical matters—since God has set the order that we reap what we sow, which is our responsibility—but because we need His guidance to attain that perfection.