SUPPORTING SCRIPTURE
2 Corinthians 12:9 Trying to build a prayer life can be difficult—whether you don’t know how to pray or you don’t feel like praying. So we’re here to help you connect with God with simple prayers for the everyday.
I Try So Hard to Be Perfect
We’ve been taught to value hard work, to try our best, to strive for perfection. And while it’s normal and good to have high expectations, and to work toward improvement, that last point– striving for perfection, is where so many of us get hung up.
A desire to do things perfectly often brings with it anxiety and exhaustion. Trying to never mess up results in comparison and shame.
We’re holding ourselves to a standard that we hold no one else to… and one that’s impossible to achieve. A standard that will only leave us feeling inadequate or like a failure. We might even find ourselves falling into apathy, wondering why we should bother at all if we’re not going to be perfect.
Friends, no one expects you to be perfect– least of all God. We were all made and called very good, even as he gifted us with limitations and weaknesses. Let yourself remember: Jesus was perfect so you don’t have to be.
If you’re struggling with the pressure to be perfect, we hope you find freedom with this verse and prayer.
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
A Prayer for Perfectionism
Spotless Lamb of God, you lived perfectly so that I may have forgiveness. You love me perfectly so that I may have peace. In the moments when I’m tempted to strive for the impossibility of perfection, remind me that I’ve already been made perfect in you. Help me embrace my moments of failure and weakness, and still see myself as you do: very good. Free me from the idol of perfectionism, this pressure I put on myself, and lead me instead to take comfort in your perfect love. Amen.
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