Or whose expectations are you trying to live up to ?
I f you try and live up to your own expectations you can go awry in one of two ways - either you will be too hard on yourself and bring yourself under condemnation because you are not maintaining the standards you expect of yourself - or you will be too lenient and tolerate things within yourself that you wouldn't tolerate in others and self-deception creeps in.
If you try and live up to other people's expectations - as you perceive them - then again you will quite easily come under condemnation as people move more easily in judgement than grace. And other people's expectations will be a changeable yardstick as those people who like you will tolerate and overlook those things that other's with a lower opinion of you will criticise.
If you want truth wrapped in grace as to how well you're doing then it's God's standards and expectations you should be living up to. If God shows us our faults it is because He wants to take us to a better place within ourselves; to make us more like Christ and He doesn't point the finger and then walk away leaving us crushed or without hope - no He exposes the truth of what we are and then takes our hand - if we are willing to take His - and walks us through the process every step wrapped in grace and love.
But don't forget Colossians 1 v22 where it says that we stand in His presence without a single fault becasue of the work Jesus did on the cross. He doesn't focus on our faults - He knows we need shaping - He focusses on the work of Christ and receives us in to His presence without seeing a single fault - but when we are in His workshop - like a carpenter He chisels and shapes us by the people and the situations around us to bring out those hidden depths of beauty that only He can bring to the surface.
I f you try and live up to your own expectations you can go awry in one of two ways - either you will be too hard on yourself and bring yourself under condemnation because you are not maintaining the standards you expect of yourself - or you will be too lenient and tolerate things within yourself that you wouldn't tolerate in others and self-deception creeps in.
If you try and live up to other people's expectations - as you perceive them - then again you will quite easily come under condemnation as people move more easily in judgement than grace. And other people's expectations will be a changeable yardstick as those people who like you will tolerate and overlook those things that other's with a lower opinion of you will criticise.
If you want truth wrapped in grace as to how well you're doing then it's God's standards and expectations you should be living up to. If God shows us our faults it is because He wants to take us to a better place within ourselves; to make us more like Christ and He doesn't point the finger and then walk away leaving us crushed or without hope - no He exposes the truth of what we are and then takes our hand - if we are willing to take His - and walks us through the process every step wrapped in grace and love.
But don't forget Colossians 1 v22 where it says that we stand in His presence without a single fault becasue of the work Jesus did on the cross. He doesn't focus on our faults - He knows we need shaping - He focusses on the work of Christ and receives us in to His presence without seeing a single fault - but when we are in His workshop - like a carpenter He chisels and shapes us by the people and the situations around us to bring out those hidden depths of beauty that only He can bring to the surface.
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