"The more we trust God's perfection, the better we can deal with human imperfection. There is no other healthy way to survive life in a broken world. Nothing short of divine love can equip us to love others as we should, for it is our security in God's perfect love that makes it safe to love those who are not perfect. Without the God who ordained them, the laws of love would be difficult and dangerous indeed.
When our ultimate trust is in God, we're not as vulnerable to the disappointments that arise in our dealings with others. We can be authentically patient and forbearing. We still deeply hurt when others fail us, to be sure, and it's not right to pretend otherwise. But in our pain, we are able to view this reality from a much larger perspective. When our earthly "treasures" are threatened, we don't react as we would if these were our only treasures.
To the extent that we have confidence in God's power to accomplish His purposes in His own way, we'll not be driven by the urge to "control" what takes place around us and to keep certain things from happening. "As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit" (Emmanuel).
When we have entrusted the fulfillment of our deepest needs to God, we won't look to other human beings to provide us with more than they can provide. Our expectations of others will be more realistic when we see God as the only Source of what we most deeply need. Secure in His love, we'll not place on anyone else the impossible burden of loving us perfectly.
It should also be said, however, that trust in God's perfection frees us to see our own limitations in a better way. Pride is, after all, a very tiresome, unproductive thing, and the humble recognition that we are not God is not confining; it is empowering. We'll do a better job of being human beings when we quit trying to do God's work and focus on the duties that are truly our own."
~ Gary Henry, Diligently Seeking God
My life quote is the second paragraph in yellow... a woman from church who was a constant source of encouragement throughout my college years gave this daily devotional to me when I was just starting grad school. That paragraph spoke to me during a time when my world started to fall apart... I was angry at God and eventually had nothing to do with Him. Years later, a great deal of healing has stemmed from that one paragraph.
Living on this earth and in our physical bodies, its so easy to make this world and the people in it, everything to us. We definitely need each other, but we should never put any person above our God.
No one can fulfill you like our Lord.
Please don't put the impossible burden of loving you perfectly on any other person. Parents, children, boyfriends/girlfriends, spouses, friends, elders... whoever... will at some point let you down and if you place them higher than God, will you be able to survive it?
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