Progress & Perfection

1 John 3:2-3
"Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."

We are now children of God, learning to walk as Jesus walked and look and act more like our heavenly Father. As children, we make mistakes and stumble into sin. But, as we grow and mature we put childish ways behind us and we learn to be disciplined (1 Cor. 13:11).
One day we will be like Him, when we see Him face to face and reflect His glory in our glorified heavenly state (1 Cor. 15:42-44).
In between these days, it is up to us to determine and display what we will be like. If we have this hope of future glorification in us we will strive for conformation now. We will discipline ourselves to act, speak, think and feel like Jesus. We will stop making excuses like, "I'm only human" or "nobody's perfect." These excuses only hinder our progress. We cannot afford to lower the bar that Jesus set, "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect," (Mt. 5:48). This is our goal, this is our aim, to live in perfect obedience and love (1 Jn. 3:10) just as Jesus did.
While perfection is our goal, it is not our measuring tool. We measure our relationship with Christ by progress not perfection. We must ask ourselves daily, "do I look more like Jesus today than I did yesterday, last week, last month, last year? I must keep my eyes on the goal, being fully conformed to the image of Jesus as I strive to look more like him each day.

Father - give me sober eyes and mind to see and know my progress. Keep me from pride and discouragement. Let me see me as You see me. Let my heart be true and let my faith be strong to continue walking with You. Amen.