Perfectionism: A Counterfeit Purpose Resulting in Stress
After church one day, I talked with Jerry and asked him what he thought of the sermon. He said, "Just when I thought that I had it all together, our pastor brings something up that completely derails me. Now there's something else for me to work on!" Did Jerry fall into the trap of thinking that perfection is the reason for living?
Seeking perfection is a counterfeit purpose, a way of life originated and taught by Satan and his fallen angels. It is a counterfeit of our one true purpose, taught by our Lord Jesus, which is to develop loving relationships (Matthew 22:34-40). At the core of every counterfeit purpose is the pursuit to attain and maintain God's love and approval.
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In my book, What Does God Really Want, I share that one of the four most common counterfeit purposes is perfectionism. Simply put, moral perfection is the goal of a perfectionist. Some people don't realize the destructive danger of this philosophy. Some have even labeled their personality as a perfectionist. It's not a personality or a way of life–it's a lie. When the seed of a certain philosophy is a lie, the resulting fruit will resemble the Father of lies.
When Jerry makes a habit of looking for the negative traits in his own life, the habit naturally carries over to all of his relationships. When he lives out the lie of perfectionism, his goal will be to passionately look for imperfections in everyone's life. When he gets preoccupied with imperfections, he essentially becomes a faultfinder. Jerry is unknowingly adopting the lifestyle of Satan, "the accuser of the brothers." He is following the same lifestyle of the people who arrested and crucified Jesus–the Pharisees.
Jerry is too caught up sin sniffing to ever encourage anyone. Perfectionism has blinded him from seeing the God-given strengths and gifts in each person he meets. As Jerry lives a life of faultfinding, complaining will become his shadow. He will notice that he complains over every customer-service situation, as well as in any kind of social setting. Subtle slandering will be as natural to him as breathing. This faultfinding tension that he brings to every circumstance will culminate with him feeling stressed.
He will blame the "stress" on the situation or other people. But in reality, he is the one who creates this life of stress - all because he has fallen into the trap of believing a lie.
This was my Christian life for twenty years.
Counterfeit purposes always produce stress. This is just one of many counterfeit purposes (lies) that Satan wants us to believe (1 Timothy 4:1).
Living according to the truth of what Jesus said, our true purpose always produces the abundant life that He promised (John 10:10). His desire is for us to do greater things than what our Lord Jesus did Himself (John 14:12).
His desire is to develop a loving relationship with you.
This is part one in a two-part series.
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Michael Trillo is founder and director of Breakthrough Ministries Worldwide. He is a Christian speaker and author of the book What Does Really Want, available at http://www.WhatDoesGodReallyWant.com. He can be contacted at info@michaeltrillo.com.
