Some Kind Of CrazyНамуна

God Is for You

Throughout my life I have ached for love and belonging, looking for people who would not just accept me but who would give the impression that the party didn’t begin until I arrived. I needed to know that my existence mattered and that there was a purpose to my life.

I believed that in order to be loved, to feel secure, or to have a sense of significance, I had to be more than I was. That entailed working hard to measure up. The degree to which I achieved would determine the degree to which I received. Doing, rather than being, was the only currency worth trading.

Looking back, I see that much of my story was about killing the pain of those longings when they went unmet or trying to meet them in any way possible, regardless of who I stepped on along the way.  

Even after I realized God’s love for me, I believed the same fundamental message: You don’t measure up. You need to try harder, pray harder, read the Bible more, serve more. 

I didn’t realize that performance-based faith is nothing more than a business deal. God has something you want—eternal life. You have something he wants—holy living. If you give him what he desires, he will deliver what you want.

And so we evaluate the Christian life by how we are doing. Are we having our devotions, reading our bibles, attending church? While such things are not unimportant, they are not the foundation of our faith.

The rock upon which we rest is the person of Christ and the fact that he is “for us,” as we read in Romans 8. God is the One who gives us the longings for connection and purpose and God is the only One who can fulfill those longings.

Jesus came to eliminate all obstacles that stood in the way of us fulfilling the purpose for which the Father laid hold of us before time began. His life, death, resurrection, and ascension were all for us, and upon going to heaven, he is yet ministering on our behalf in constant intercession. For us! And if God is for us, who could be against us?

In what ways do you allow performance to drive your relationship with God? How does the reminder from Romans 8 that God is for you affect your perspective on performing for God?