Thoughts
that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking
Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to
the audio file.
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“So, why Jesus? Why not Buddha, or Allah, or the God in Me? Simply stated, Jesus represents a religion that has the least amount of performance-based requirements to be acceptable to the Higher Being that that religion worships. All other religions require me to do things, in ever increasing ways, in order to be set right with my God. Christianity is the only religion where God came for me rather than waiting on me to get my life shaped up enough so that I could come to Him.”
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis
Page 3.
Take a moment and think about how much you are going to be called on to perform today. Even if this is your day off, performance is going to play a critical role in how your get through your day. Don’t believe me, how will you feel if you shank that drive into the woods on hole number 7 today? Whether it is at work, at home, even on the golf course, how well we perform can set the tone for how we feel about ourselves from one moment to the next. The same goes with our church life.
It just doesn’t sit right with me to use performance as a measure of how well my desire to follow my God is going at any given moment in my life. In the studies of various other religions I have done in the past, the do’s and don’ts seem to take precedence when it comes to whether I’m living up to the what others have said is required for me to be in a right walk with my God. On my best day, am I really living up to a standard of a perfect God? The doubt embodied in that question is enough for me to let victim thinking slide into my life.
The apostle Paul puts it this way:
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
In its purest sense, following Jesus Christ isn’t about performance. He did it all! That’s why I follow Him. It isn’t about how much I pray, read my Bible, how often I go to church or any of the multitude of performance based activities I do that will bring me any closer to the God who loves me. Following Christ, to me, means that I have given up on being able to work my way to God. I’m trusting my eternity on something God did for me, not what I might be required to do for Him. That gives me a freedom to live this life as the victor Christ died to make me become.
Relying on my ability to perform in any venture of life will ultimately lead to victim thinking. If performance is my benchmark, then when I underperform, or when my performance doesn’t give me the results I want, then I’m open to the kinds of doubts that fuel the fires of victim thinking. I just can’t stand performance to be part of my quest to get to know my God.
I’m not saying that having a standard and working to live up that standard is bad. What I am saying is that the our ability to perform at a certain level isn’t what makes us a victor. If our walk with God is tied to ANY standard, then the day we don’t live up to it we are put in a place where victim thinking can take control.
Today, let Christ take on the power of performance. There is nothing you can ever do in the natural realm to make yourself a victor in God’s eyes. That’s why I need Jesus. Live like the victor He died to make you become. Push off the temptations, even in church, to let victim thinking be fueled by reliance on ourselves to live up to some standard we can never attain.
**********
“So, why Jesus? Why not Buddha, or Allah, or the God in Me? Simply stated, Jesus represents a religion that has the least amount of performance-based requirements to be acceptable to the Higher Being that that religion worships. All other religions require me to do things, in ever increasing ways, in order to be set right with my God. Christianity is the only religion where God came for me rather than waiting on me to get my life shaped up enough so that I could come to Him.”
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis
Page 3.
Take a moment and think about how much you are going to be called on to perform today. Even if this is your day off, performance is going to play a critical role in how your get through your day. Don’t believe me, how will you feel if you shank that drive into the woods on hole number 7 today? Whether it is at work, at home, even on the golf course, how well we perform can set the tone for how we feel about ourselves from one moment to the next. The same goes with our church life.
It just doesn’t sit right with me to use performance as a measure of how well my desire to follow my God is going at any given moment in my life. In the studies of various other religions I have done in the past, the do’s and don’ts seem to take precedence when it comes to whether I’m living up to the what others have said is required for me to be in a right walk with my God. On my best day, am I really living up to a standard of a perfect God? The doubt embodied in that question is enough for me to let victim thinking slide into my life.
The apostle Paul puts it this way:
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
In its purest sense, following Jesus Christ isn’t about performance. He did it all! That’s why I follow Him. It isn’t about how much I pray, read my Bible, how often I go to church or any of the multitude of performance based activities I do that will bring me any closer to the God who loves me. Following Christ, to me, means that I have given up on being able to work my way to God. I’m trusting my eternity on something God did for me, not what I might be required to do for Him. That gives me a freedom to live this life as the victor Christ died to make me become.
Relying on my ability to perform in any venture of life will ultimately lead to victim thinking. If performance is my benchmark, then when I underperform, or when my performance doesn’t give me the results I want, then I’m open to the kinds of doubts that fuel the fires of victim thinking. I just can’t stand performance to be part of my quest to get to know my God.
I’m not saying that having a standard and working to live up that standard is bad. What I am saying is that the our ability to perform at a certain level isn’t what makes us a victor. If our walk with God is tied to ANY standard, then the day we don’t live up to it we are put in a place where victim thinking can take control.
Today, let Christ take on the power of performance. There is nothing you can ever do in the natural realm to make yourself a victor in God’s eyes. That’s why I need Jesus. Live like the victor He died to make you become. Push off the temptations, even in church, to let victim thinking be fueled by reliance on ourselves to live up to some standard we can never attain.
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