Accepted without performance

Grace carries with it the revelation that you and I are accepted by God – regardless of our performance. It is the mysterious ability of God to accept us irrespective of our successes or our failures in life.

People in this world are trained to feel valuable on the basis of what they do; they live under the tyranny of their performance. Remember when you were a child and you brought your school report home, and your brother or sister achieved more that year than you? Many children feel that acceptance by their parents depends on their performance at school, and consequently feel that their successful brothers and sisters are more accepted than they are. (Wise parents accept all their children – not based on performance, but on their intrinsic value.) 

Whenever I have had to discipline my children, I have impressed upon them that I love them exactly the same whether they are good or bad. My love for them is not based on their performance, but on the fact that they are my children.

We need to understand that we have value in God, irrespective of how much we are doing for God. Even if we never read the Bible again, never witness again, never pray again, never go to church again, God would love us exactly the same as if we were doing everything perfectly! 

by Rob Rufus