Have you ever held up a mirror to yourself and felt like you don’t meet the standards of the way you want to look? Do you see flaws in yourself that you don’t like? We often feel this way because we have an idea of what “perfect” is—and it’s not us.

Now, that ideal is most likely flawed, but when God holds up His character in front of us like a mirror, it reveals that we actually do have a lot of glaring moral imperfections. For example, God is perfectly loving, while it can be very hard for us to love others above ourselves. God loves His enemies, but we tend to hate anyone who has done us wrong. God’s desires are never selfish or lustful, but we have to fight our selfish desires on a daily basis in many different areas—lust, greed, trying to get our way, fighting for control, wanting to take center stage.

When Jesus holds up the mirror of His character to us in Matthew 5, we find ourselves genuinely saying, Okay, Jesus, I get it. I cannot keep this perfect standard the heavenly Father has set for me. What do I do?

Jesus wants us to be honest and admit who we really are. If you are sick and deny it, how can you ever get better? But if you humbly admit your need for God and accept the offer of His perfect Son, Jesus, to forgive you of your sins, He will make you perfect. (Yes, perfect!) Admitting and accepting that God is right and we are not is the first step to being made right with Him and fulfilling His desires for us.