Episode Transcript
[00:00:09] Well, hey friends, welcome back to the weekday podcast. As always, we're so glad you're here. We hope that this podcast offers encouragement every single day. And one of the great ways to consume this podcast is to actually download the latest version of the Sugar Hill Church app. You can find it on the Apple iOS store. You can find it on the Google Play Store. It's a simple way to download episodes for offline listening, to share it with a friend and send. So if you have an iOS device, it should update automatically. If you have a Google device, please go and search for it and download the new version of the app. We'd be so grateful. Well, today I want to think about faith over perfection. And here's the question today. What if God isn't looking for perfection, but for people who keep showing up in faith?
[00:00:50] Now, the honest truth is, most of us, we're our own worst enemy. We're quick to give grace to other people, but we're brutal with ourselves.
[00:00:58] Like, when we miss a goal or drop a habit or fall short of our word of the year, we don't just feel disappointed. Honestly, we often feel disqualified.
[00:01:09] But what if perfection was never the goal? What if what God wanted most from you this year wasn't flawlessness, but actually faithfulness?
[00:01:17] Now, when we think about Habakkuk, chapter two, there's this verse that says this in verse four, behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him, but the righteous will live by faith. And there's so many applications to this. One of them is to stop striving and to start trusting. The context of this verse is super powerful. Habakkuk is living in a time when the proud seem to be winning, injustice is rampant, the faithful feel forgotten. And God draws this sharp contrast. He says, the proud, they live by pride, but the righteous, they live by faith. And the thing that really hits me is that your strength won't carry you to the finish line.
[00:01:55] Only faith will. God is not impressed with our performance. He's drawn to our dependence. So if your word of the year has felt impossible, if it's revealed that you have weaknesses instead of strength, good. That's where faith begins. And it reminds me that perfection is actually a moving target. Have you ever noticed how perfection keeps changing? You hit a goal and then suddenly there's a new goal. You check off your to do list, but you feel like you didn't do enough. You live out of your word for a week, and then life hits and you spiral. It is literally exhausting. And that's why God calls us to live by faith and not by performance. Because perfection is a treadmill. Perfection is a treadmill. But faith is a path, and it's one step at a time. Faith doesn't say, I nailed it. It says, I'm still showing up.
[00:02:42] So what does it mean to live by faith? We hear that phrase, the righteous live by faith. But what does that actually mean? Here's three things. One is it means that you trust God. When you don't feel strong, you say, God, I'm weak today, but you're not. Number two, it means you believe God's not done with you. Even when you've drifted, even when you failed, you say, his grace is still sufficient for me. Number three, you rely on his spirit and not your willpower. You stop white knuckling your way through life and you start surrendering again and again and again. Because living by faith is less about doing more and more about depending deeper. And that's a great reminder today. Maybe grace is for you, too.
[00:03:21] Some of you are generous with grace until it comes to yourselves. You forgive others, you cheer others on. But when it comes to your journey, you often call yourself a failure. You rehearse your shortcomings. You carry shame like a backpack full of bricks. But let me tell you something that's true.
[00:03:37] God's not looking for perfect people. He's looking for present ones. People who are still in the game. People who say, I'm not perfect, but I'm still praying. I'm still trusting. I'm still moving.
[00:03:49] If God gave up on people who failed, none of us would still be here. So stop disqualifying yourself. Grace covers this, too.
[00:03:57] And so if you want to think about how to live out of faith today, show up again. Maybe you stop journaling, start again. If you ignored your word for months, recommit this week. If you felt spiritually flat, say this simple prayer, God, I'm here. And then speak truth over yourself. Start replacing self shame with scripture.
[00:04:16] Try this verse from Romans 8, verse 1. There's no condemnation for those in Christ.
[00:04:21] And then take one small next step. Don't try to fix everything today. Ask God, what's one faithful thing I can do this week?
[00:04:29] Living by faith doesn't require being amazing. It just requires being available.
[00:04:35] So if you've drifted, if you've doubted or even failed, today is your mulligan moment. Not to be perfect, but to be present.
[00:04:42] God does not require you to fix everything overnight. He's not asking you to impress him. He's just inviting you back to the table to walk with him. By faith, your failure, it doesn't cancel your future. Faith still leads you forward. So pick up your word, Recenter your heart today rely on grace and take one small, faithful step today. Have a great day. We'll see you back here soon.
