Wednesday, 16 January 2013

Acceptable vs Perfect

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh Lord my strength and my redeemer" Psalm 19:14


This is one of my favourite bible verses. It’s also one of the best prayers therein. I was introduced to this prayer by my grade six teacher. He used to make us say it every morning and at that time it didn’t mean much. I recited it over and over again but it ended at just reciting. As I grew older and went to high school I forgot all about it. Then after I got saved I found myself looking for it along with many other verses that I had memorised when I was younger. It meant a lot to me that I remembered. I still don’t really know why.

Recently I was walking in town and I started saying the prayer in my head. As I said the words I started analyzing them. This prayer is all about asking God to take over our minds and our tongues the most powerful parts of our beings. These two can make or break us and those around us. Our thoughts often become words and actions. But that’s a story for another day.

What really caught my attention was the word “acceptable” which,  according to Google, means adequate or satisfactory.  I think the Psalmist chose that word intentionally. If we work towards being acceptable it relieves the pressure of trying to be the best. We just try to be good enough. Yet at the end of the day while we’re busy trying to be good enough for God we actually present to him our best. We are becoming perfect like Him without even knowing it. He made us in His image- perfect like Him. Then sin just had to come and ruin it for us and make us all dirty.
You might be wondering why I’m encouraging us to aim for middle ground. Actually I’m not and neither was the psalmist. It was a trick I think. We think “All I need to do is be satisfactory” and as we read the word and do like it says we are moulded into the people God has ordained us to be. We are made perfect in his eyes. And I strongly believe that his definition of perfect differs from ours. He is perfection and he knows its a tall order for you and me. He knows temptation is all around us and sometimes we fall into its trap. But once we go back to His throne and confess and repent, He accepts us and therefore we are made perfect.

So according to this verse acceptable and perfect mean the same thing. Because whenever God takes over He makes us nothing less than perfect

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