Except for the Lord Himself, nobody knows my flaws, my imperfections, my shortcomings better than me. I suppose there are many people blinded to theirs because they don’t want to know them. For me, that’s not the case. I want to know mine. I don’t want to know them so I can feel bad about myself. I want to know them so that I can ask God to help me change them. I don’t want to bury my head in the sand. I want to become more and more like Jesus Christ.

Why do I want to become more and more like Jesus Christ? Is it so He will be happier with me? No, He already loves me wholeheartedly and unconditionally. He already died for me. What more could He do to prove His love. Romans 5:8 “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

Well then, why do I want to become more like Jesus? Is it so I can get into Heaven? No, His dying for my sins as a gift and me receiving this gift from Him has already taken care of that. I could not earn Heaven by being good enough. I could never be sinless – the thing that keeps people from Heaven. But He took my sins and washed them away. He will do that for anyone who will receive Him into their heart and receive this gift. So, I don’t have to earn my way to Heaven. Jesus offered it to me as a gift and all I had to do was accept it by faith and consider it precious. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the FREE GIFT of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So again, why do I want to become more like Jesus each and every day? I do because the moment I profess Him to the world as my Lord and Savior, the world has an expectation of me, like it or not. They expect me to act like Jesus. They don’t care about the fact that they might sound like and be acting like the devil. Because I said I belong to Jesus, they want me to see me act like Jesus. Is this hypocritical? Maybe but a reality for sure!

Many of us admit our flaws. This is good. What isn’t good is when we use the reality of our shortcomings and imperfections as an easy excuse as to why we could never be more like Jesus. Jesus desires us to change and be more like Him every day. He wants that effort. Not so we can get into Heaven and not so we can act self righteous, but because we are the living example of Him to the world. We are the Jesus they see (or not see.) Romans 12:2 exhorts and instructs us, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is." (Rom. 12:2)

When you give your life to Jesus, you are told in 2 Cor 5:17 that you are made a “new creature in Christ.” This verse goes on to say, “Your past life has passed away and your entire life ahead of you is now about to become new.” This is why Jesus used the term, “born again.” It’s as if you started your life over. Now you have God’s Holy Spirit living in you and helping you see God’s plan for life and the world around you through His eyes. The Holy Spirit is there to help you change and become more like Jesus.

It’s no mystery we are flawed, but we have God’s Holy Spirit to help us become more like Jesus so the world can see God’s love through us! This is what 2 Cor. 3:18 instructs us to do saying, “And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.”

Jesus always represented His Father. He never Misrepresented His Father. Let’s not cop out and use our imperfections as an excuse to not change. His will is for us to become more like Him and represent Him the very best we can!

The more you grow like this, the more you will become productive and useful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(2 Peter 1:8)