Relax! God Doesn’t Want to Watch You Perform, He Just Wants You Willing

As Christians, we can easily get sucked into the belief that God wants to watch us perform great deeds for him. But maybe we have it all wrong. #churchlady #christianwalk #believer #willing #performance #expectations #stress #truebeliever #truechristianity #faith

As Christians, we can easily get sucked into the belief that God wants to watch us perform great deeds for him. But maybe we have it all wrong.

As Christians, we can easily get sucked into the belief that God wants to watch us perform great deeds for him. But maybe we have it all wrong. #churchlady #christianwalk #believer #willing #performance #expectations #stress #truebeliever #truechristianity #faith

When Thousands Watch You Perform (and Fail)

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, fellow students and professors,” I looked around the audience of over a thousand. Every word of my carefully memorized campaign speech vanished from my mind.

The pause turned pregnant as words and phrases trickled back in disorder. My suddenly cold hands gripped the podium, and I stammered out lame lines about how I would make a great leader of the university’s student association.

As my vision tunneled, I could see a few sympathetic faces in the audience as they watched my pitiful performance. I can’t remember exactly what I said before I stumbled off stage in humiliation. But I knew my cocky decision to leave my notes behind had cost me the election.

All my opponent had to do was smile and say a few lines that didn’t sound garbled, and he would win.

The Path to the True You

This painful experience started me on the road to finding my true self—the self God loves unconditionally. The self that doesn’t need to stand on a stage, look a certain way, say certain things, and rigidly adhere to a particular set of rules to feel beloved of God.

God wants me to have a willing heart—even if I fail. Even if I think the task seems impossible.

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Romans 12:1-2 MSG

God doesn’t want us to perform for him. He wants us willing to do the hard work, the unappreciated tasks, and the behind-the-scenes loving that no one will ever appreciate, acknowledge, or know about.

If we fall into the trap of expecting God to watch us perform, we’ll end up plastic and fake.

If we fall into the trap of expecting God to watch us perform, we'll end up plastic and fake. #fmfparty #faith Click To Tweet

The way we treat people, the earth, and animals in private matters more than how we treat an audience at church. Our ordinary lives say more about our relationship with God than any church office we hold.

As Christians, we can easily get sucked into the belief that God wants to watch us perform great deeds for him. But maybe we have it all wrong. #churchlady #christianwalk #believer #willing #performance #expectations #stress #truebeliever #truechristianity #faith

10 Comments

  1. David danced before the Lord,
    full on, no ifs or buts,
    tore clothes that he could well afford,
    but his wife thought he was nuts,
    wondered what’ll neighbours say:
    “Come on, David, pause it!
    Get inside right now to pray,
    and dance inside your closet!”
    But Dave would not do as bidden,
    he wanted to perform
    in a way that was not hidden,
    and devil take the norm.
    You’ve got to hand it to his style,
    and I will bet he made God smile.
    Andrew Budek-Schmeisser recently posted…Light And ShadeMy Profile

  2. Thank you, Anita for humbly sharing your story! It could be mine! I have to check my need to perform to earn God’s approval. He has been gently leading me away from that to resting in Him with a willing heart. Thank you for this great reminder today that I am on the right track!

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Anita Ojeda

Anita Ojeda juggles writing with teaching high school English and history. When she's not lurking in odd places looking for rare birds, you can find her camping with her kids, adventuring with her husband or mountain biking with her students.

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