All Things New • Devotional Day 1:

The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O
Lord endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.
—Psalm 138:8 NKJV

January is the time of the year for renewal, hope, and change. I’ve decided
to not make any resolutions this year; instead, I’m going to make progress,
and that will lead to perfection.

The goal is to be consistent for at least twenty-one days because that’s how
long it takes to make something stick. Fifty percent of resolutions last about
forty-five days and then they vanish into thin air. Why? Could it be our
goals are unattainable, which means we are setting ourselves up for failure?

Our perfectionist ways are not always obvious. We can easily identify Ms.
Perfect because she makes sure everything looks pretty with a fancy bow.
Th ere is also Ms. Petty. She nitpicks and can’t move forward until things
are just right. And then there is Ms. Procrastinator, who starts out strong
but never finishes.

Being a perfectionist can prevent us from completing even the smallest tasks,
but, more importantly, it can distract us from fulfilling our God-created purposes. After God told me to start writing devotionals, I immediately came up with fifty titles and got excited about my new purpose. After about a month, someone started popping my devotional balloons, and my purpose started losing some air. Th at someone was me. I was trying to be Ms. Perfect. I was researching the perfect blog site, giving myself an unreachable goal of having one hundred devotionals written in advance, and I was trying to find my writer’s voice—whatever that is.

My assignment from God was becoming a work project. I got overwhelmed and I told God, “I’m not equipped to do this, and I’m not even a writer. Obviously, I misunderstood You.”

Zechariah 4:10 (NIV) says that we should not despise small beginnings because the Lord rejoices to see us just start. After reading this scripture, I knew I had to finish what God had told me to do. I decided that I was going to move forward with what I had right now, which was small faith to write a weekly devotional, and I would have to depend upon the Holy Spirit to inspire me each week regarding what to write.
Let’s do a lot of small stuff for God and watch Him build something beautiful in us as we lay one brick at a time. Strive to make progress and not to be perfect.
Additional Reading
Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel. (Zechariah 4:10 NIV)