CHRISTIAN PERFORMANCE - CAN WE REALLY IMPRESS GOD?

 

CHRISTIAN PERFORMANCE - CAN WE REALLY IMPRESS GOD?

 

Isa 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. 

 Our attempts at our own righteousness is as filthy rags or a woman's blood stained menstrual rag! That's when we have put our best foot forward. Once we realize this we see the need for Jesus Christ as only His righteousness can cut it.

 There is a fallacy that has arisen among the Christian community. This is that when we are born again, or when we have come to believe in Jesus, our righteousness can now cut it. Now we can do righteous deeds and gain ascendency, become more spiritual, and somehow be in a better place to have our prayers answered by doing so-called spiritual disciplines/deeds.

 This is a lie from the devil. If our righteousness did not cut it before we believed, it is not going to cut it afterwards.

 So someone may ask what do I do now that I am saved? Do I just sit down and do nothing? First read and meditate on this verse:

 John 6:28  Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 

John 6:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent. 

 The work of God is to believe in the One He has sent - Jesus Christ. I feel like this is a verse that is meant to reset us to factory settings at all times.

Always ask yourself whether you are believing in Jesus Christ and what He did for you on the cross as enough for you, or whether you are relying on your merit (what you have done for Christ). When you pray are you asking only in the merit of Jesus or confident that because you fasted, God is more inclined to hear you.

 Picture this: It's January and you have begun a 3-day, 7-day, 21-day fast. You stay hungry all day while trying to pray, endure the smells from your colleague's lunches, turn down coffee and lunch dates, and faithfully keep to your fast all through the period. Then your church-mate who doesn’t follow the church fasting calendar, actually you've never witnessed her fasting, comes and excitedly tells you how they prayed for something and God did it so fast it left them spinning! What's your response? God why?

 In Matthew 20:1-16 Jesus speaks about this very thing. Workers who believe that they deserve more.

When you consider that all of us stand before God on the same merit of Jesus sacrifice on the cross, then you'll see that none of us has greater merit before God than the other.

There is no day when you'll come before God and say that you have Jesus plus something extra - it sounds ridiculous! Jesus said that He finished it; all that was required for us to be accepted before God had been accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s why we pray in His name, not in ours.

 The guys who first came to work in the vineyard in the morning were told the payment that they would receive at the end of the day. The owner of the vineyard kept his word to them at the end of the day. However they felt that they deserved more because they saw the other workers receive the same amount of money.

Think of John 3:16. What are you promised when you believe in Jesus Christ? Eternal life. This applies to all who believe in Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter whether you got saved 40 years ago and have been working for the Lord all that time, or whether you got saved today and died. The promise is eternal life and it's what you receive.

 John 1:12  But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name:

No one is a super-son because of their actions - we are all sons of God because we believe in Jesus Christ.

About Prayer 

Phil 4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

We shouldn't be anxious about anything, whether a sickness, unpaid and piling bills, work problems etc. Sometimes our fears drive us to desperation and instead of simply crying out to our compassionate God, we imagine that if we fast God will be more inclined to hear and answer us!

Do you realize that this is besmirching God's character? It is a portrayal of God as someone who doesn't care and needs convincing, begging and suffering on our part so that He can help us!

Wolfish preachers who want to look spiritual thrive on your fears and desperation and they'll drive you into doing religious things labelled as 'spiritual' so that God can answer your prayers! Run from these guys. It is easy to see them at the beginning of the year because they all have a fasting and prayer calendar to start off the year. They make you believe that spiritual people fast at the beginning of each year. Really? Where does the Bible give this instruction?

This is no different than the Jews who were trying to get Gentile believers to be circumcised so that they could be 'fully saved' in Acts 15:1

 

Matt 7: 7-11 gives no conditions for receiving what you ask for, for finding what you seek or for having the door opened when you knock.

 Matt 7:7  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 

Matt 7:8  For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 

Matt 7:9  Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? 

Matt 7:10  Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 

Matt 7:11  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Where did we get the notion that we need to do things or so-called spiritual disciplines so that we can qualify for something before God?

 

In the parable of the workers in the vineyard Jesus tells us that the reward is the same because it is not the work that is being considered. The merit is not the amount of work done but the good man who employed them. In the same way, our merit is not based on what we do but on who we belong to - Jesus - the One who qualified us by His death on the cross.

 May God help you to embrace this truth with all your heart and run from those who seek to burden you with loads that God never intended for you.

 

The Warning

If all this seems like unspiritual talk, consider the people Jesus was addressing in Matt 7:21-23

Matt 7:21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 

Matt 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 

Matt 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. 

 

Note that these folk were doing good works. Why did the Lord say that He never knew them? Because they trusted in their works and not in Him. There is only one thing required for a believer to do and that is to believe in our Lord Jesus Christ.

The good works that we do after this are the ones ordained by God beforehand for us to do. That means that God institutes them - not us.

 

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. 

 Therefore practice asking God what you should engage in or better still pray that God directs you into what you should engage in. This will keep you from running after everything rogue preachers and 'holier than thou' people push you to do so as to be more spiritual.

Scriptures to meditate on

Gal 5:1  Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 

Mat 11:28  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

Mat 11:29  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 

Mat 11:30  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.