Anything else keeping me from relationship?

I've long been captivated by the scene recorded for us in the first seven verses of the sixth chapter of Isaiah.  (The whole chapter is a favorite, actually!)

Isaiah saw a vision of God and it was life-altering!  He immediately recognized his own state--and he says he was "Undone." He was falling apart at the seams in the presence of the Holy, Almighty God of the Universe.

When we behold God in His perfection, we can recognize we fall short of it.

As I have seen the love of God displayed in the pages of His Word, and I honestly assess my own love for others--I see how it is lacking.  It is fickle.  It is shallow.  It falls short of His perfect love.

That goes for all other attributes.  Because I am made in His image, I too possess them.
But ALWAYS in some lesser degree.

Not perfectly kind.
Not perfectly patient.
Not perfectly merciful.
Not perfectly forgiving.
Not perfectly gentle.
Not perfectly anything.
and so on with every. single. one.

That is our great need.  We are not perfect.  Jesus is.

My faith in Jesus makes me perfect in God's eyes.

However, when I am in His presence, I can see myself and am incapacitated by my inequity, my less-than, my SO much less than.  Simply:  my sin.

How can I even begin to stand at His presence?
I am SO grateful He makes a way.

James 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

James is talking about the day-to-day sin we commit as we walk in this fallen world, battling our nature.  We are not transformed into Christ-likeness in an instant.  It is a process.
And so daily.  And sometimes moment by moment, I need His touch.  His forgiveness for what continues to trip me up and entangle me SO THAT my prayers would be effective.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

As I seek forgiveness for whatever might be keeping me from an undisturbed relationship with a RIGHTEOUS God, then I can be used by Him.  

Hebrews 12: 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 

Because He has a plan for me, a race that is meant for me to run.


Click here for index of all #write31days posts in this PRAYER series.