Wisdom Begins With a Word by Carol Castillo
Have you ever had performance anxiety?
enly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)
Even if you’ve never set foot on a stage or suited up for competitive sports, performance anxiety is an “equal opportunity” issue, common to us all. You might have performance anxiety if you: • Compare yourself to others and fear you don’t measure up. • Fear being judged based on your performance. • Feel shame and humiliation over past failures. • Feel stressed, hurried, and overwhelmed in your daily life, and like you just can’t succeed no matter how hard you try. These feelings and fears can seep into our walk with God. High-performing people often take scriptures about perfection to heart which only adds to their internal pressure. “You therefore must be perfect, as your heav-
“And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:4) It’s easy to misunderstand these verses and view God as an authoritarian taskmaster who demands a 100% score on life and anything less is failure. Fears that God is judging critically lead some to make sincere but fruitless efforts to reach perfection. After all, if we’re perfect, nothing bad will ever happen, God and everyone else will be pleased, and unpleasant situations will be avoided.
Breathe. The Bible has good news. God is not after your perfect performance. He’s after relationship. “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (I John 3:1) He doesn’t want your own goodness. He wants you to depend on His. "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Cor. 12:9)
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