[Faith-talk] FW: [thefamilyoffaith] Escaping the Performance Trap - Charles Stanley

[Eric Calhoun]

Original Message: 
From: "TONY_at_FloridaHealth" <FloridaHealth21 at verizon.net>
To: <thefamilyoffaith at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [thefamilyoffaith] Escaping the Performance Trap - Charles
Stanley
Date: 
Wed, 25 May 2011 07:51:17 -0400




Escaping the Performance Trap


A treadmill is one of the most effective tools for burning calories,
despite the fact that the person exercising stays in the same place.
Similarly, many workers worry and grope through each day, without actually
making headway. Isn't it ironic that in both pursuits, people must give
great effort without really going anywhere?

So it is with people who try to work their way to righteousness. Many
Christians grow stagnant in their faith because they expend tremendous
energy trying to attain some lofty ideal of the "Christian experience."
They usually understand that grace is what saved them but believe they must
pay God back with good works in order to remain saved.

Have you become a modern-day Pharisee? Do you maintain a mental or
psychological checklist to ensure that you do what you should and resist
what you should not? Are you closer to living under the law than under
God's grace?

When you act outside of God's will, your life runs on finite "fumes":
your own strength. The result can be exhaustion, withdrawal, and
bitterness. The real Christian experience requires only that we have faith
in Jesus Christ and abide in Him, the true Vine. (John 15:5) - "I am the
vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much
fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. "

You can't do anything to make God love you more. Nor can you do anything
to make Him love you less. This is a liberating truth! Your heavenly Father
isn't keeping score-we can't pay Him back for His grace. In fact, no amount
of good works can pay the debt of love we owe. The apostle Paul wrote, "The
Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified
by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor."
(Gal. 3:24-25) - "Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to
Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come,
we are no longer under a tutor." He explained that there is no way we can
keep God's moral code perfectly. We need a Savior.

Even after we become Christians, God doesn't want us to add law to His
grace. He wants obedience, of course. But obedience is the overflow of a
heart full of love, not legalism.

When Jesus tells us to keep His commandments, He emphasizes that
obedience shows others we love Him. The moral law shows us our need of a
Savior. But we cannot obey the Lord Jesus without His help. We are children
wanting to please the Father because we love Him. This delivers us from
legalism and keeps us grounded in grace, not only for salvation, but also
for living the Christian life.

The Scriptures compare our relationship with God to a race. Paul calls us
to run so that we may win and the author of Hebrews adds that we are to do
so with endurance. (Heb. 12:1) - "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud
of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and
the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the
race that is set before us."

Only by running on the wings of grace can believers triumphantly finish
the course God has assigned for each one of His children. The legs of
performance eventually grow weak. The muscles of legalism and religion
weigh us down and become rigid hindrances. Our main problem is that we can
understand the need for grace in salvation, but we tend to rely on other
means for process of sanctification.
How can you cease striving, get off the performance treadmill, and learn
to walk in grace? Here is the key: the more you humble yourself before God,
the more you will receive the fullness of His grace.

God "gives grace to the humble." (1 Peter 5:5) - "You younger men,
likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with
humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES
GRACE TO THE HUMBLE."
Not to the strong, but to the weak. Not to the self-sufficient, but to
the dependent. Grace belongs to the poor in spirit-in other words, those
who humble themselves by recognizing God's majesty and worshipping Him. The
more you adore and praise the Savior, the more highly you'll think of Him.

Humbling yourself won't reduce your self-esteem or diminish your worth to
God. Rather, it positions you to receive your sustenance from the source of
all good things, Jesus Christ. As a humble believer, cast yourself on the
grace of God, leaning on Him with your full weight. Draw all your strength,
peace, joy, and security from the sufficiency of the Holy Spirit living
within you.

Be strong in grace. Throw off the chains of works and "religion," and
receive the remarkable power of God's merciful loving kindness.