Tuesday, October 1st, 2024
For as long as I can remember, I have been a pedal-to-the-metal, get-‘er-done kind of person. I poured all that I had into school, sports, my job, projects around the house, etc. On the surface this doesn’t sound terrible, except for the fact that my striving was for the wrong purposes. My value came from all of these things. I wanted to do well in school and sports and at my job because then people would look up to me and respect me. But then when a game didn’t go “perfect”, or someone at work challenged me, it shook me to my core. Or if I didn’t get the grade on a test, I thought I should have, I saw myself as a failure. If I didn’t finish up that house project on time it was a sign that I was lazy. I was indebted to and dependent on success in these areas for my identity and my self-worth.
As my walk with God progressed, I tried to apply this same work ethic. I thought that if I prayed enough or read enough or worshiped enough then I would be acceptable to God. And if I couldn’t fix my problems then either I wasn’t working hard enough at them or there was some other “Christianese” thing I was supposed to be doing.
Lately, God has been faithful to remind me that when it feels like life is overwhelming and exhausting it’s usually because I am in the way and working too hard to stay in the way. Let’s look at Romans 4:4-5 in two different versions:
NKJV: 4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. 5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,
TPT: 4 When people work, they earn wages. It can’t be considered a free gift, because they earned it. 5But no one earns God’s righteousness. It can only be transferred when we no longer rely on our own works, but believe in the one who powerfully declares the ungodly to be righteous in his eyes. It is faith that transfers God’s righteousness into your account!
“No longer rely on our own works”, that is exactly where I want to be. I have exhausted too many of my days trying to stay busy and accomplish whatever it was that I thought would fill my tank. God gave us this incredible free gift of a peace-filled, abundant life and so many of us are too busy spinning our hamster wheels to even enjoy it.
Final Thoughts…
Where is it that we put our faith, in our skills and diligence or in God? The verbal answer is probably easy, but the walking out of that answer is quite a bit more challenging. One of the best things my husband and I have done in the last few years to learn to rely on God instead of our diligence is taking a sabbath every week. It has not been easy to put our to-do list down one day a week, but each time we do, we realize that this life is less about us and more about Him. We don’t do it just because it’s a commandment. We do it because we want to honor Him and show Him that He is the one we trust. We want our children to understand that He is the one we trust.