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by Meghan McSwain Last month I introduced the idea that Satan tells us lies which interfere with our relationship with God and our sense of self-worth. Robert McGee is his book, The Search for Significance, refers to first of these lies as the performance trap. “I must meet certain standards to feel good about myself.” A desire to succeed, especially in God’s calling for your life, is very admirable, but such performance is not what gives one value. The feeling that one must succeed in order to feel good about oneself leads one to the fear of failure. The fear of failure either creates a perfectionist or, on the opposite end of the scale, someone who never attempts anything. Both of these situations can lead to anger, resentment, anxiety, fear and depression among other destructive feelings. God’s answer to this lie is justification. Romans 5:1 says: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Justification is more than just forgiveness, being justified also means that God has restored you. God has deemed you righteous, therefore you have worth regardless of what you can or cannot accomplish. If self-worth is not dependent upon performance, one has no reason to fear failure. One’s self-worth equals God’s truth about him or her which is s\he is completely forgiven and fully pleasing to God. Now, that sounds like someone who is worth a lot to me! If you feel you may be caught up in the performance trap, McGee suggests that you memorize the following statement and repeat it to yourself several times daily. Try it for the next month. I have great worth apart from my performance because Christ gave his life for me, and therefore, imparted great value to me. I am deeply loved, fully pleasing, totally forgiven, accepted, and complete in Christ. Learning a saying to repeat will not change one’s perception of his or her self, but if you will continue to study God’s Word and claim his promises, then you will begin to be freed from the performance trap. For additional study I encourage you to work through the entire book, The Search for Significance. Maybe this lie of Satan’s does not trouble you. In the coming months we will examine other lies which Satan tells us. Watch out! He is a crafty opponent! Taken from The Search for Significance by Robert McGee, 2nd edition. Houston: Rapha Publishing (1990). |
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