"Greater": So, What's Next?

This week as I complete my first Online Bible Study, “Greater”, I wonder what’s next. Seven weeks ago my heart was renewed, my life was changed and a calming peace I’ve never known before fell over me. Just from reading the first chapter I knew this was going to be an incredible journey for me, one I needed to take. But as I completed the final chapter last night, a sense of sadness came over me. This overwhelming joy I’ve come to possess over the last several weeks, will it fade? Will I fall back into the mediocrity of “good enough”? Will I let that little voice of fear and negativity creep back in to my heart, and pollute my mind with doubt?

The honest truth is I don’t know what’s next. I’m still not sure where God is leading me, but I know He is. I know I’ve come a long way from where I was 7 weeks ago, and there is no turning back. I can’t turn back now…I won’t.

This morning as I was reading scripture from John 15, I jumped a couple of pages ahead and this passage was presented at the top of the page I turned to titled, “Perfectionism: An Unreachable Goal”.

The compelling need to be more than what you are capable of ever becoming is the driving motivation behind perfectionism. It stems from deep insecurity, a gnawing fear that being the woman God made you to be is somehow not good enough. The longing for absolute perfection is rooted in the lost recollection of Paradise. Within every believer is an internal barometer of how things ought to be, a deep yearning for the perfection that only heaven will bring. Something inside knows that no matter how good things are-they should be better. One day they will be, but not now. Knowing how it could be while living with how it actually is often causes an unhealthy tension. Understanding the innate desire for perfection can lead to a deeper anticipation and hope in eternity. It also helps release the demand that life in the present must satisfy all longings. At the same time, the Lord calls each believer to pursue wholeness and soundness of spirit-concepts that are frequently described as “perfect” in the New Testament (Matt. 5:48). The foremost trait you are called to perfect in your life is the ability to love (1 John 4:17-19). “Completion” or perfection as human beings is not possible, however, as the result of your own striving. It is the manifestation of God’s work in you (Heb. 13:20, 21). ~ NKJV, The Woman’s Study Bible, Second Edition.

This morning as I prayed, I asked the Lord to keep me focused, aware and alert to how He’s working in my life. That I not lose my edge and fall back in to the comfort of mediocrity and settle with good enough. That though this physical journey with “Greater” is now over- emotionally and spiritually I can continue to live it every day.

I know I’m not alone. So, do I think I’m capable of continuing this journey to “greater”; capable of overcoming every obstacle I may face along the way; capable of becoming the woman God created me to be? 

I'll answer this with the words of Steven Furtick... 

My Father says I am.

Rachel