I worked as a guidance counselor in a school for several years.
One morning, a young girl in grade 3 came to my office crying. Immediately I asked her what was wrong so I could bring comfort.
She told me that she was just told by her parents that if she didn’t get at least second honor, they would not go to their family trip to Hong Kong.
Wow. The pressure of your family vacation not pushing through because of you.
My heart went out to her and prayed for her.
I thought about many kids and adults alike who bring this
performance orientation into their relationship with Jesus.
“If you don’t do this, if you can’t make this, if you can’t perform well then you’ll miss out of My blessing.”
How many people think this way today?
I obviously don’t mean disobedience and rebellion against God. But what I’m saying is that many think that after giving their life to Christ, they need to continue to earn God’s favor.
We already have His favor through Christ.
Read what Tulian Tchivijian says in his book Jesus Plus Nothing = Everything.
The hard work of Christian growth, therefore, is to think less of ourselves and our performance and more of Jesus and his performance for us. Ironically, when we focus mostly on our need to get better, we actually get worse. We become neurotic and self-absorbed. Preoccupation with our effort instead of with God’s effort for us makes us increasingly self-centered and morbidly introspective.
Facebook Comments