Next Steps | The Wesleyan Church

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48)

I’ve battled with perfectionism for as long as I can remember. Sometimes that need for perfection deals with very unimportant things, like having to make sure everything on my desk is straightened to my liking or I can’t work properly. Sometimes that need for perfection exposes something much deeper, feelings that I can never do enough or be good enough.

This statement to be perfect from Jesus echoes a statement said twice in Leviticus to be holy as God is holy. It is not any less of a lofty call. To be holy and perfect as God is holy and perfect—it’s not something we can achieve through hard work. We cannot put our head down and power toward perfection. It is a process of being progressively sanctified by the Holy Spirit, continually made into the likeness of Jesus. Every day we can ask ourselves the question, “Do I look more like Jesus today than I did yesterday?” No matter if your answer is yes or no, your next question is always to ask Jesus for your next best step.

There is work to be done by us, but it is full of freedom and life. When we try to earn our salvation and move ourselves toward holiness, we will always come up short. Choose the better way: follow Jesus and he will lead you toward perfection.

Ask God to give you your next step toward holiness.

Ethan Zent is an ordained pastor in The Wesleyan Church, serving as a full-time missionary alongside his wife with the organization Poetice in Zambia.