I feel like my life has been one long string of competitions. Talent competitions, athletic competitions, academic competitions, just to name a few. Very rarely in my life did I ever just live in the moment and enjoy being alive.
No, I felt forced to march to the beat of competing to earn approval or favor. It was hard and tiresome. A few years ago I finally felt so bone-tired weary that I collapsed under the weight of performance. It was as though the 500 pound bag of rocks I carried finally crushed me and ground me into a fine powder.
I had no strength left to care anymore if I was noticed or not. Or if I won or not. I was officially done. It felt like death, but it was really the beginning of something beautiful.
My performance mentality wasn’t just toward people; it was also aimed at God. I didn’t understand grace. I couldn’t yet fathom that great love of God. But being crushed by unattainable goals (the rocks) led me to a new place.
This new place was the feet of Jesus, where performance and personal failures are irrelevant. You see, when you come to the cross and stand at his feet, you realize the enormity of what He did for you personally!
It’s not just a story of how he saved the world, it’s a story of how he saved you. Whether you were trapped in addiction, greed, sexual sin or self hatred like me, it doesn’t matter because we all need saving from ourselves and we can’t do it.
We can’t perform our way to God. We can’t win our way to God. There isn’t one single thing we can do to deserve His love for us. That’s what makes it so beautiful and so humbling at the same time. It literally takes my breath away when I visualize him, the perfect lamb of God, with gaping wounds on his hands, feet, head and side, saying “It is finished!”
Yes, all of the weight of my sin gone. The performance and self hatred because of my failure , gone. All of the separation from God and confusion that it brings, gone. All of punishment for my trespasses, gone.
All of it is gone and I didn’t do a single thing to make it happen except receive this amazing gift. What a beautiful expression of God’s great love for us in the person of Jesus Christ.
I don’t know where you are in your life right now, but hear this loud and clear: you don’t have to earn love! You don’t have to be perfect for God to bless you and give you favor. You have all of that because Jesus paid the price.
There was a price to pay. Yes someone needed to win the competition. Someone needed to be good enough. Jesus was the only one that could do it, so he did.
And because of that, we now live under the blessing of God where things aren’t earned but given to us. Praise God we can be free from performance forever!
Share this with someone who needs to be free in this area!
