READ: JOHN 15:13-15; ROMANS 3:21-24; 15:7; 1 JOHN 1:8–2:2

Are you good enough? I’m not. Not nearly good enough to please all those voices that tell me to do better, try harder, be perfect. How I’ve tried! Many of us are side-lined perfectionists, watching from the benches while other brighter, bolder, better perfectionists are in the game, seemingly living that gleaming, perfect, successful life where they seem to shine.

“Seem” is the definitive word! All the posts and pictures that dominate our feeds make these perfected humans “seem” so perfect. Better than us, for sure. But it’s all an illusion. Not real, not at all. Perhaps they project the illusion that they themselves want so badly to believe. “Maybe, if I appear this way—beautiful, smart, athletic, successful—I will eventually believe it myself.” Because, believe it or not, those who seem so put-together struggle with the same inadequacies that we do. Turns out, humans just aren’t perfect—it’s been that way since humans first sinned. We can’t always achieve high marks, make the team, or have a slew of friends.

But I’ll tell you what we do have. As believers in Jesus, we have Him as our Friend. Such a Friend! He will always have your back, include you, and love you exactly the way you are. His love never fails. And He doesn’t require you to be better, try harder, be perfect, measure up.

Instead, God in Christ extends to each of us this marvelous, extraordinary gift called grace. Grace is God’s unearned favor, the kind of love and acceptance and inclusion that we all dream of enjoying. But the marvelous truth is, everyone who has put their trust in Jesus can enjoy God’s grace every day.

And then, do you know what we can do with this wonderful grace of God? We receive it. We daily remind ourselves that, despite our imperfections, God loved us so much that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead so He could give us this grace. And then we give it out freely, to everybody around us. • Kristen Merrill

• In what ways have you tried to measure up? Do you ever feel like you’re pretending to be the person you want to be? How could it be freeing to rest in Jesus’s grace and love for you instead?

• Do you feel far away from this free gift of grace? Maybe a bit distant from God? As Christians, sometimes this happens when we have unconfessed sin we need to take to God in prayer. Other times, it may be we’ve been believing things about God that aren’t true, and that makes it hard to feel close to Him. Who are trusted Christians in your life who can walk with you when you’re struggling? (If you’ve never received the grace of Jesus, you can find out more on our "Know Jesus" page.)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8 (NIV)