Acceptance Precedes Performance

God loves us for who we are, not for what we do for Him. It took me many years to fully understand that my relationship with our Lord was based on love and nothing more.

JAMA has seen many changes over the years the Lord has used us to minister to folks in and around the motorsports world. That ministry has taken numerous forms which include food, fellowship, song and the spoken word. Through the internet, the Lord has used our skills to reach many parts of the globe.

Unfortunately, everything I did was always based on my need to perform for Him. We did an online chapel service for a year. And as quickly as we started the messages, the Lord asked us to stop. As I prayed for what He would have me do to ‘replace’ that work, He spoke softly to me and said I want you to do nothing. It really was odd at first, but I got use to it as the business grew and required more and more of my attention.

For 12 years, I had based my relationship on what I did for the Lord. When we stopped doing the service, I literally learned how much He loved me simply because He is my Father and I am His child.

As we start the new year, I challenge you to examine your relationship with the Lord. Is it based on love or work?

Blessings

Acceptance Precedes Performance
TGIF Today God Is First NextGen
by Charis Hillman Brown

“Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” -Romans 15:7

We have a performance complex in the world today. We tend to believe that we are accepted for what we do, not for who we are. Business works this way. Politics works this way. It’s hard to focus on accepting the who versus the do, since in work situations the “do” is essential for success and profit.

But what about you and me? Are we only accepted for what we do or don’t do in life? Unfortunately we will end up in depression or some other extreme behavior if we continue to believe this lie.

The truth is that God loves and accepts us before we do anything. This truth is often easy to forget. Many times in family life and upbringing, (although this should be an unconditional place of love and growth), love is based on our performance. So, as we grow up, we learn that as we do well, we get more love. But if we mess up or do the wrong thing (or things those people don’t want us to do), love is withheld.

We must understand that acceptance precedes our performance. If not, we will become either gods in our own eyes if we meet those expectations, or else we will fall into despair because we are not perfect and cannot meet them. We need to instead strive to please the “audience of one,” our heavenly Father himself.

Everyone wants to be loved for who they are. Do you feel loved for who you are today? Do you know without a doubt that God loves and accepts you for who He made you to be? Are you able to express this type of love (agape) to others? I pray that we will continue to realize how much our Heavenly Father loves us, in spite of and before anything we try to do to be successful.