00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on episode 667 of the inspired stewardship podcast. My name is Joanne DME. I'm a Christian financial advisor. I'm the host of the dollar savvy podcast. And I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence, impact the world by using your time, your talents and your treasures to live out your calling. Find your path to financial freedom.
00:00:29 And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to my friend, Scott Mader, the inspired stewardship podcast. It can drive you forward, but it does it without you having to compete with others. Even it doesn't without you having to compete with yourself, because it's about moving forward out of the past, through the present, into the future,
00:01:00 without holding any of those moments, except the present above any other. Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast will learn to invest in yourself,
00:01:26 invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world. And today's spiritual foundation episode about developing your influence. I talk with you about what John Wesley means by the expression on towards perfection. I share why this means so much to me and why we have to recognize how this can actually drive us forward on towards perfection. You know,
00:02:00 John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement talks a lot in various sermons and, and various times about this idea called Christian perfection and, and John Wesley did believe that it was possible for believers to arrive at Christian perfection in this lifetime, that this wasn't something that, you know, came after your death or in some sort of afterlife, but it could come during your actual life.
00:02:29 And that might sound a little weird or a little arrogant even, but when we're talking here about Christian perfection, this doesn't mean that you're perfect in every way, far from it. In fact, he kind of thought of it more as sort of this practical idea that you would be perfected in love that you would come to a place or could come to a place where you could be without not sin,
00:02:57 but be without intentional sin, you could actually work it out where you would not do any deliberate action or purposeful action that would harm others or separate you from relationship with God that yes, sins of ignorant, sins of error, mistakes are still going to happen. We are going to do the wrong thing from time to time because we don't have perfect knowledge and know what the perfect solution is.
00:03:25 But Wesley believed that through grace, you could move to a point where you would never sin on purpose. And what's more Wesley said that he had never achieved that moment of perfection and that it also could be a fleeting moment. It could be a moment where we reach it for a period, but it doesn't last. It's not something that we can necessarily hold onto.
00:03:48 And this idea is one that means a lot to me because you know, here's the truth. I know I'm far from perfect. I know there are times that I sin not through ignorance, but through my actual action. I know that there are things that I choose to do that end up harming me or harming others or harming the relationship I have with them.
00:04:09 God. And that, without that, though, I would recognize that there are still fleeting moments where I managed to act in that idea of perfect love. Now they're way far, further apart than I wish they were, but they do happen. It allows me to begin to focus on the windshield instead of the rear view mirror. See, I'm one of those people that I'm wired in such a way that when I make a mistake,
00:04:34 I beat myself up for it. It's one of those things where I will hold myself to a higher standard than I would hold anyone else too. And knowing that I should put more energy looking out the windshield and the review mirror of my life, which is what this on towards Christian perfection. That's part of what it means to me, helps me continue to move forward.
00:04:54 It helps me to recognize that I shouldn't dwell on the past, but I should also not just rest where I'm at, but continue to move forward, continue to try to get better and better each and every day, continue to try to build on the relationships that I have continued to try to get more perfected in love each day. This week means so much to me because it keeps me driving forward,
00:05:22 but it keeps me driving forward in a very positive way. It's not a competitive thing. This, this becomes not about what anyone else is doing. It helps me hold a judgment free zone to a large extent when I'm working with clients where I'm not looking at them going, that the decisions that they make are right or wrong instead, it's about the decisions that they make are the decisions that they make in the moment that they make them.
00:05:49 And then I truly believe that everyone tries to make the best decision they can with the information they have at the moment that they have this idea allows me a little bit of room to forgive myself as well as others. It allows me some space to recognize that it's not about never sinning because sins of ignorance, sins of error are going to happen. Instead.
00:06:16 It's about getting better every day, getting a little deeper into the relationship, getting a little deeper into caring and loving for others, recognizing injustice and speaking out against it a little more each day, moving towards looking at when I see that Facebook meme that just irritates me taking a breath and recognizing that that person is coming to that view from their own reality,
00:06:45 from their own view of the world. And that it's not probably held in malicious ways, but that if it's one of injustice, if it's one that harms others, I still have not only a right, but a responsibility to speak out about it and to speak out against it. That my part of our job as Christians is to recognize when people are being oppressed and harmed and to lift them up.
00:07:12 It, this moment, this recognition of being on towards perfection can drive you forward, but it does it without you having to compete with others, even it doesn't without you having to compete with yourself, because it's about moving forward out of the past, through the present, into the future, without holding any of those moments, except the present above any other.
00:07:42 Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast, as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoy this episode, do me a favor, go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there until next time,
00:08:33 invest your time, your talent and your treasures, develop your influence and impact the world..