Performance

Christian Working Woman Transcript

Living in a Performance Driven World

I truly believe that one of our greatest hindrances to a life of joy and victory as Christians is that after being saved by grace through faith, we then try to live the Christian life through our own efforts and we think God will accept us or reject us based on our performance.

Jesus didn't die to help us perform better. He died and rose again to live His life through us. That's what Galatians 2:20 is all about:
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Let me tell you something: It's not hard to live the Christian life; it's impossible! Only Christ can live the Christian life, because the Christian life is living up to God's standards. Christ rose again to live His life in us. We don't have to do it because we can't do it. It is His resurrection life, inside of us, that enables us, empowers us, to be able to live the way God wants us to live.

That means I no longer have to live with this driving need to perform for God. Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches...Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me...Apart from me you can do nothing."

If you cut a branch off the vine, can it continue to produce fruit? No, of course not. That branch is useless unless it's attached to the vine. Now, if it's attached to the vine, what does it have to do to bear fruit? Work hard at it? Can you hear a branch saying, "Oh, I really have to do a good job at bearing this fruit. I must perform better than the other branches in order to bear good fruit."

No, all that branch has to do is stay attached to the vine, so that the life-giving sap flows from the vine to the branch. The fruit then happens automatically. That branch is nothing more than a fruit hanger!

We are the branches. What's our job? Stay attached to Jesus. Get to know Him. Let His life flow from the vine into us, and then the fruit happens.

Have you been restfully abiding in Jesus, or have you been trying with everything in you to produce fruit all by yourself and win God's blue ribbons? The good news is you weren't saved by works, and you don't live your life in Christ by works. No, indeed, we live and grow in God's glorious, marvelous grace, just as we were saved by that same wonderful grace.

Jesus died and rose again to take you out of performance driven mode. Have you ever realized that, or are you still trying with everything in you to win God's approval through performance?