Perfection of God

August 29, 2015

Devotions:

        “WHEN ABRAM was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, I am the Almighty God; walk and live habitually before Me and be perfect (blameless, wholehearted, complete).”  Genesis‬ ‭17:1‬ ‭AMP‬        

        God told Abram that his walk before God would perfect him.  As Abram (Abraham a little later), lived before the Lord or abided in Him the presence of the Lord would change Him.  God never told Abraham that he had to clean up his act, so to speak, before he could come into God's presence.  God never rebukes Abram even though a couple chapters later, right before Isaac was conceive Abram told a lie to save his own skin. 

        “And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.” ‭Genesis‬ ‭20:2‬ ‭KJV‬‬

        God does not say anything to Abraham but threatens Abimelech and has Abraham pray for Abimelech to restore fertility to his wives.  

        In Christianity we have the erronous idea that we have to clean up our act before we can come into the presence of God.  But Jesus already did this by His blood and made us the righteousness of God. As we act on this righteousness and come into His presence and worship Him, He empowers us to put away those things that would separate us from Him.  Our perfection is in Him and found in His presence, not in our own efforts to be perfect.  

        Sin will destroy us.  That is why God hates it.  That is why we need to make it a habit to come into God's presence as often as we can and receive of His life force that will cause the deadness in our lives to drop off.  Abide in His presence, dwell there, habitually live there and God will mature us into perfection.