Editor's note: Enjoy today's devotion written for Devotionals Daily by Hosanna Wong, author of Uncomplicate It.
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“I can’t do this perfectly.”
Have you ever said these words? Maybe you’ve said it out loud. Maybe you’ve whispered it in prayer. Maybe it’s been running quietly in the background of your mind for months — or years.
Our everyday lives can feel like one long list of expectations we’re failing to meet. Deadlines. Responsibilities. Relationships. Emails we forgot to respond to. Laundry that never ends. And layered on top of all of it — our relationship with God.
Sometimes following Jesus starts to feel like one more thing we’re not doing perfectly.
When we don’t pray enough.
When we don’t read Scripture like we used to — or wish we did.
When we’re too tired to show up for people the way we want to.
When we say something that we immediately regret.
The pressure creeps in quietly: I should be better at this. I’m missing the mark. I’m not crushing it.
And often, without realizing it, we begin to treat our relationship with God like a spiritual performance review. We start to feel like we’re failing those around us, failing ourselves and failing God.
But here’s the freeing truth:
God never asked you to crush it.
Many of us are carrying expectations that don’t come from God at all.
So where did this pressure come from?
Perhaps some came from church culture.
Maybe some came from comparison.
Some came from social media.
Some came from the versions of ourselves we thought we were supposed to become.
We see people who seem to have it all together — those with perfect routines, perfect friendships, and seem to be living out their purpose flawlessly — and we assume that our lives must look like theirs in order to meet some sort of gold standard. We start reaching for a version of spirituality that looks impressive but feels exhausting.
I don’t know where the pressure came from for everyone, but for me it came from comparing my relationship with God to other people’s relationships with God, and from a scripture that I used to get so very wrong.
Jesus once said,
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. — Matthew 5:48
I used to misunderstand this verse. To me, these words sounded like confirmation that the bar really is impossibly high – to carry more than a human can handle, to be impressive, to be a gold-medalist in the spiritual Olympics!
But the truth is better.
When Jesus used the word perfect, He wasn’t talking about flawlessness, achievements, or spiritual impressiveness.
The original Greek word He used here means complete. It also means whole, mature, undivided — without duplicity.
- Jesus wasn’t saying, Be impressive. He was saying, Be whole.
Do you feel whole today?
Do you feel like you’ve invited God to heal and restore the broken pieces of your interior life, even if your outward circumstances have not changed?
Do you feel like you are always the same person at your core — online and offline, at church and at work, with family and with friends?
God wants you to be whole, even when brokenness is around you. God wants you to be fully yourself, even when you’re around people who tend to live double lives. God wants you to be complete.
Suddenly, the goal isn’t perfection — it’s wholeness.
In fact, in the passage leading up to this verse, Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus was specifically pointing out an epidemic of duplicity, a widespread problem of people living double lives. People who were kind when it benefited them. Loving when it was convenient. Spiritual when others were watching. Religious on the outside, fragmented on the inside.
And Jesus was telling His followers: Don’t put on spiritual show. Be the same person in every room. The same when no one is watching and when everyone is. Don’t just love people when it benefits you. Don’t live fragmented. Love wholly. Love completely.
Fragmentation leads to exhaustion. And many of us aren’t tired because we don’t love God enough — we’re tired because we’re trying to be someone He never asked us to be.
It’s worth asking: What if the enemy of our soul is not just trying to pull us away from God — but also trying to exhaust us in His name?
What if misinterpreting this call to “be perfect” keeps us hurried, anxious, ashamed, and fragmented — the very opposite of what Jesus intended?
Because when we believe God is asking us to always crush it, we spiral:
Shame when we fall short.
Guilt when we rest.
Comparison when others seem ahead.
Fear that we’re doing it wrong.
But Jesus never invited us into shame-driven faith. Jesus came to set us free from shame. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus consistently spoke against the religious people who were constantly shaming others, those who were putting on a spiritual show, and those who added all these extra hoops for others to jump through. They overcomplicated life with God. Jesus came to uncomplicate it. Jesus said:
Believe.
Follow Me.
Love God.
Love others.
No extra performance.
Friend, you don’t have to impress God. You don’t have to earn what’s already been given to you by God’s grace once you put your faith in Jesus.
Instead of asking, How can I do this perfectly?
What if you asked, How can I love God, and love others well today? How can I obey God in every aspect of my life, in public and in private today? How can I come to God… completely?
Today, you don’t need a longer to-do list.
You might need to receive God’s gracious to-don’t list.
Don’t believe the lie that you have to do more to earn His love.
Don’t confuse exhaustion with holiness.
Don’t let expectations from people replace the actual invitation from Jesus.
Don’t compare your journey to someone else’s.
Your relationship with God does not have to look like anyone else’s relationship with God. And it doesn’t have to look like it did years ago. God doesn’t want a relationship with a pretend version of you. God wants a real relationship with the real you in our real life.
- You don’t have to crush it.
Obey God in the places and spaces He’s put you.
Invite God into what’s really going on inside of you.
Love Him and love others well.
Do that again tomorrow.
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Written for Devotionals Daily by Hosanna Wong, author of Uncomplicate It, copyright Hosanna Wong.
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Your Turn
Where have I been carrying pressure and expectations that God never gave me? In what areas of my life do I sometimes feel fragmented or divided? What would it look like to pursue wholeness instead of perfection this week? ~ Devotionals Daily