Are you a performer?

We live in a performance based culture where our results are measured almost daily. Consider the following things that are common parts of our society:

report cards

performance reviews

customer satisfaction surveys

opinion polls

economic statistics

sales figures

commission checks/bonuses

medical treatment benchmarks

game scores

scholarships

Can you think of others? Do you see how inundated we are with ways to check how we are performing, ways to motivate a higher level of achievement, and ways to improve?

Is it any wonder that Christians have a hard time simply embracing the grace of God in our lives. It is foreign to our thinking that Christ did it all and we simply accept and enjoy the forgiveness of sins and promise of a forever relationship with Him. Even if we truly believe that salvation is by grace alone, and not by any works that we do, we still have a hard time living out the Christian life without rules and measuring sticks. For example, do you ever measure your spiritual growth by the following?

How often you have devotional or quiet time?

How many "souls won" or visits made?

How faithful you are to Bible study? Getting your "homework" done?

How many verses you memorize?

How much money you are able to give?

How many hours you volunteer at church?

How many projects you head up?

Whether your kids are "walking with the Lord" or not?

Whether you have a spiritually strong marriage?

It's not wrong to want to grow and to make efforts in areas such as mentioned above. But the big difference between grace and legalism is the "why."

Are you doing the above to earn God's favor?

Or because of it?