Last week I posted this on my Facebook page:

Total light bulb moment: "No flaw is sinful or shameful — it’s the way God wired you! ... Those flaws are part of your custom design, and God planned them for his purpose and glory." — Rick Warren This former perfectionist says, wow! I am uniquely flawed for God's glory. Not that I can live with.

(Read the full devotional, “Even Your Flaws Can Bring Glory to God.")

First let me clarify that flaws are those things or place in our live where we have imperfections and weaknesses. I’m not talking about sins. One of my flaws is my soft voice. Even in school it was an issue. Tried to talk louder but just couldn’t. Yet Abba chose me to be a speaker of all things! In my flaw, He is glorified. People who listen to me hear Him, not me.

Some days I feel like I’ve really licked this perfectionist thing but then other days, well, let’s just say the battle can wage pretty hot. I am a work in progress, for sure, and so very grateful that Abba doesn’t relent. Jesus came to set us free and He wants us to walk in that freedom—freedom from sin, addictions and our hang ups.

But this really challenged my thinking. Freed a part of me I didn’t realize was still in the cage of perfectionism. It’s the lie of, “I won’t be complete (useful, successful) in my faith until I’m free of my flaws, my hang ups.”

But Abba’s Words says this:

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; — Col. 2:8-10

The world will tell us all about our flaws. Jesus says we are complete in Him. The world will tell us we have to earn our reward. Jesus says He is our great reward and our salvation—a gift we can never earn but need only receive. The world will tell us that we must strive to overcome these places in our lives, but Jesus says, “I have overcome the world for you.”

My friends, these are our truths. This light bulb moment has created a paradigm shift in my thinking. Instead of seeing my flaws as deficits to overcome, I’m asking Jesus how He wants to be glorified in them. Which, astonishingly, has led me to ask the same thing about my husband. “Lord, show me how you want to be glorified in his flaws. Let me see him from your perspective.”

Take a moment and think about a flaw (not a sin) you wish you didn’t have. In your next quiet time, sit with Jesus and ask Him how He can be glorified by it. Ask a friend you trust who is a believer how they see this flaw in you. Maybe even ask them what they consider to be their flaws.

And what if we discover our flaw is meant to be our strength?

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. — 2 Cor. 12:9

Be complete (empowered, strengthen, emboldened, fulfilled) in Jesus!