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"In religion we worry about the results because results reflect on our identity. We do good, so therefore we must be good. Failure means there must be something wrong with us. This is victim thinking."
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 78.
Religion and results can be tied together in ways that work to make victims of those who buy into the results based means of getting to this God that is suppose to love us. Results back us into the corner of using our religious understanding to try and make sense of all that comes at us in this world. It is when we bow to the alter of results that victim thinking can't help but to be the outcome that drives our lives.
You see, results make us move in circles where good and bad are the issue. Humans were never suppose to know the difference between what is good and what is bad. I know that is an impossible concept to wrap our heads around. We are bombarded by the need to determine good from bad in everything we do all day long. The knowledge of good and bad is what causes us to live in a way where victim thinking comes in and tries to kill our prospects of living fully in the life of the victor God sees us to be.
Religion, at its worst, adds another layer of confusion to the potential victim thinker stuck in making good and bad the basis from which they live out their identity. Religion brings in a host of rules and regulations to try and help us figure out good from bad. That kind of thinking puts in an adversarial position with those who think differently when it comes to what is good and what is bad. Its no wonder a large portion of the world fails to embrace organized religion today.
Jesus made it very clear that He hated religion. He knew the awesome power and benefit of a relationship with The Father. Jesus saw, first hand, how man had turned what was suppose to be a relational approach to God into a results based process. Jesus had some pretty direct and harsh words when it came to the leaders of religions entities. He called it as He saw it and I think we need to be looking at our own methods of coming to this God to make sure we too aren't falling in the same trap.
Religion makes us think it is all up to us. Do this, don't do that. If we can just keep the rules in a good enough fashion, maybe, just maybe we will be good enough to make it in the end. Ask any person who has little or no church experience and they to are caught in the results based method of getting to God. Most believe that if the good in their lives out weights the bad, then surely God will let them into whatever is next after this life.
I hope you see the futility of that kind of religious and non-religious, results based thinking. I'm exhausted just considering what it takes to be good enough to be a part of what God promises. I've tried to live a results based life. I've tried to let what I do be enough to prove who I am. For a while that seemed to work just fine. It was when what I did didn't seem to rise to a level that I thought made enough progress in life that fear started to creep in.
What if all my efforts weren't good enough? That made me double down and work all the harder. I did so until I nearly worked myself into an early grave. It was when I took time to slow down that I started to recognize the unforced rhythms of the grace God surrounds us with on a moment-by-moment basis. The more I tap into those rhythms, the more I feel the pressure being lifted from my need to let results be what makes me worthy of whatever this God has for me.
Phillip Yancy has a quote on grace that blows results living out of the water. He says, "Grace, like water, flows to the lowest points." Religion has gotten way too preoccupied in making us acceptable to receive that grace. It makes results be what proves that grace is warranted in a person's life. Yancy says it is exactly the opposite. Grace settles where it is needed most. Results living make it so that grace is so hard to find, let alone be something that we find easy to dispense.
Check out today's Bible reading with me now.
So the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift. And we are all certain to receive it, whether or not we live according to the law of Moses, if we have faith like Abraham’s. For Abraham is the father of all who believe. That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.”This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing. Romans 4:16-17 (NLT)
All we need is faith. Amazing thing about the faith that is required is that, that too comes from God. I'm continually amazed at how little I am required to do to be the victor God made me to be. Yet, I still revert back to the strategy of results to make me feel good about my self in ways that ultimately leave me feeling like a victim.
That's why letting religion be anything about results is such a damaging way of helping people find their way to God. That kind of religion, though makes for a nice, clean and respectable Sunday experience, does little to be a part of the kinds of profound change God is bringing about in this world.
Maybe that low in your circumstances you are experiencing right now is nothing more than a gathering point for the unforced rhythms of grace from God in your life. If Yancy is right and grace settles like water, then the challenging times may be more about God doing something in your life, than your need to get something done.
Allow that grace to do all it needs to in your life today. Let results based living pass by you. Be the power house of victor living God wants for you. Allow Him to do the work as you go about taking on all that lies before you this amazing day.
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