Do more, be better, try harder is a lie (When it comes to God)

How is your spiritual health?

When Christians feel like we're not living up to what Jesus has asked us to do we often come up with a quick fix in our heads. The quick fix is the lie that if we could only do more, try harder, be better, that would some how make us closer to God.

“Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone.” -Dallas Willard


There is a huge difference between living differently in-light of what God has done for us verses trying to earn God's love and acceptance.


Without God's Grace we can't do more, be better, or try harder. When, as Christians we embrace our identity as children of God, we then have the ability to obey. When we obey we create less resistance to God working through our lives which, means more of God's power flows through us.


The answer to feeling better, doing more is not to try harder on your own. If you want to see fruit you have to abide in Him. Abide means to remain or to stay. Basically our function is to rest in Jesus. He will take care of everything else. 


There is a pendulum here though. Those who are  trying too hard need to relax and rest in Jesus. Those of us who are having a great time relaxing and are comfortable need to consider if it's not time to put a little effort into working out our salvation for the Kingdom.


In short two scriptures play a role here: 

• Galatians 2:16 "Know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, Have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified."

• James 2:18 "But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds."

You see the balance? We can't earn our way into heaven or God's good graces.  He loves us just as much on our worst day as on our best. In the passage from James you get the impression he is not justified by his deeds but his deeds stem from his faith. There is a connection between what we believe and what we do. 


Don't try harder to work, try harder to abide and the rest will come.


Peace.