God Doesn’t Expect Us To Be Perfect, But He Does Expect Us to Try.

There are so many Christians and unbelievers that feel God expects perfection from us in order for us to have a relationship with Him.  I have heard Christians say:

 “I will start going church once I stop this addiction, or once I stop having these sexual thoughts.”  But this is faulty thinking.

God does not expect us to be perfect when we come to Him, the only thing He requires us to do is try. If we come to Him as we are, then He will give us the grace to stop the behavior that we know we should not be doing.  But the key it to come to Him first.

Let’s take Noah

The Bible states “When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.” Genesis 9:21

Noah has moments of imperfection, and he had moments of drunkenness, but yet and still God chose to use him.  As a result he is one of the more prominent men of the Bible.

And Moses

The Bible states that “he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.” Exodus 2:12

Moses, was a murderer and even tried to hide his crime after the fact. But yet in God’s infinite mercy and wisdom, He saw things in Moses that Moses did not see in himself.  Even more so yet another prominent man of the Bible (who did many miracles) was used to do God’s work, even in his imperfection.


David is famously known for being a man after God’s own heart.  But have you ever read the Bible to really understand how much David would stumble time and time again.  And when he stumbled, he stumbled big time.

The first was David’s adulteress affair with another man’s wife.  “She came to him, and he slept with her.  Then she went back home.  The woman conceived.” 2 Samuel 11:4-5.

Not only did David have sex with another man’s wife and get her pregnant, but then he covered the sin by having her husband sent to the front lines of war and killed! And this was only after, he brought the husband home and tried to convince him to sleep with his wife, so he could pass the baby off as his (See 2 Samuel 11).  How is that for drama?

So yes David defeated Goliath, but he also committed many sins in the eyes of God, but yet God still loved him.  It is not that God loved his sin, but he loved David’s effort to please him.



God looks at the heart, no human (with the exception of Jesus) can ever be perfect, and God knows that.  It is a great thing for you and me, that God gives A’s for effort.  For those times, in which we fall short, God is there to meet us halfway.  Or better yet more than halfway, all we have to do is take the first step.

Exodus 3:11-12 states  “But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? And God said, ‘I will be with you.’”

Even though we feel that we are not perfect or not good enough, God promises us that He will be with us, carry us, and lift us up to make up for our shortcomings.  He does not expect perfection, God just wants us to put forth the effort.