“There is none righteous, no, not one.”   ~Romans 3:10

I use to struggle with this concept, that no one is good enough. If this is true, and it is, how will I ever be good enough for God? According to the Bible, on my own, I can't! No one can make themselves good enough. If it were up to us to make ourselves good, none of us would ever make it to heaven.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”   ~Romans 3:23

Thank God it isn’t up to us! It’s totally up to God, and He has a perfect plan to perfect every one of us. He’s got it all under control, all we have to do is accept His plan. All we have to do is ask for Him to come into our hearts and clean us up. That’s it! Only through the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus Christ can we become good enough for God.

The devil would have us think that we need to work really hard to get ourselves cleaned up before we think about going to God. He knows, on our own, we’d never make it. However—truth be known—we must go to God in order to get clean. On our own, we will simply never be able to get clean enough.

We must stop letting Satan trip us up with thinking that we'll never be good enough because it’s not about anything we do or don’t do, it's about what Jesus already did. It's about God's endless, undeserved forgiveness, better known as grace. It’s only through His Son that we’re good enough. All we can bring to this equation is an open heart and an outreached hand, God did all the rest through the substitutional sacrifice of His Son. We became perfected when Jesus took our place on the cross, when He traded places with us, took our penalty and gave us His righteousness.

We must simply call out to Him and allow Him to do this work in us because on our own we all fall short. It’s not by our righteousness that we are saved, nope . . . it’s by Christ’s righteousness!

“And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is from God by faith.”   ~Philippians 3:9

Bottom line, no one is good enough, not one person, past, present, or future. We, on our own, are all doomed. We can't clean ourselves up, we can't undo our sins...but He can!

Now, I'd like to share a most amazing story about a guy that really messed up, but one who God actually referred to as, a man after His own heart.

We all know about this guy, the brave little shepherd boy, David, the kid who killed the mean giant with a slingshot. Well, brave he was, but certainly not sinless.

This guy sinned so big that he actually had his best friend killed so he could continue to have an affair with his wife. So why, you might ask, would God ever call him a man after His own heart?

The answer is simple, it’s because David loved the Lord with all his heart, and he trusted Him implicitly. He understood the limitless power of his God!

David knew God, he had a day by day, minute by minute relationship with his Creator. He talked to God continually and listened for an answer every time he prayed. He always expected to hear an answer from God and was never disappointed.

He was humble (gave all the credit to God for his successes). He was faithful (trusted God completely). He was obedient and did everything God told him to do, and he always tried his best to do what was right, (and yes he failed miserably sometimes.)

But most importantly, David was repentant! He knew he was a sinner, he also knew he served an all-forgiving God. He admitted when he did wrong and he accepted the consequences of his mistakes. Read Psalm 32:5 to hear this in David's own words.

We all stumble and fall . . .

But how could a really good guy like David ever commit such a heinous sin? How could he fall away so horribly? He was no different than anyone else, he was human and he fell into temptation. When we don't stay in continual contact with God, the door is then open for Satan to lead us astray. David sinned when he allowed his fleshy desires to take over. He was tempted to do wrong in the weakest part of his being and he gave in.
We all have weaknesses, those things that seem irresistible to us. We all know exactly what our weaknesses are, and you better believe Satan knows as well.

Even though God had made David king over all of Israel, he still fell to temptation and did this terrible thing. David wasn't perfect, but he was willing to confess his sins and allow God to cleanse him. Only God can undo our mistakes. Only God can wash us clean and make us good enough. We can all be good enough to spend eternity with our all-loving Creator if we just reach out to God, and allow Him to do the rest.

“… He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.”   ~Acts 13:22

David’s example is a great road map for how we should live our lives. God lovingly inspired David to do His will and write the book of Psalms to help us all learn how to surrender to, and walk with, God. All we need to do is call out to God and ask him to help us. Because quite honestly . . . it's the only way any of us will make ever it into eternity.

“I called on the Lord in distress; the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place. I will praise you, for You have answered me, and have become my salvation.”   ~Psalm 118:5 & 21