Wisdom Begins with a Word

Carol Castillo

Wisdom Begins With a Word

by Carol Castillo

Have you ever had performance anxiety?

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.

“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly

Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)

“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.

• 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.

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)

He’s not interested in your flawlessness. He just wants your heart. “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.” (Matt. 15:8)

A spectacular performance isn’t what sets us apart. Jesus has already achieved that on our behalf when He took our sins at Calvary. Instead, He’s hungry for something far deeper.

“Many will say to Me in that day [of judgment], ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matt. 7 22-23)

Jesus isn’t talking about intellectual knowledge; He’s talking about relational knowledge. It’s one thing to know about someone, it’s another to know someone personally, deeply, intimately. That’s why the Old Testament refers to sexual intimacy as “knowing” your spouse.

God desires us to know Him.

The only way to know God intimately is to spend quality time in His presence.

First, we must give Him genuine “FaceTime” through consistent and continual prayer. Our prayers must be honest communication. Often performance anxiety sufferers hide the painful, shameful parts, afraid that if God knows who they really are inside, He will turn away in disgust and disappointment.

Remember that He loves you with an everlasting love which isn’t diminished by your failures. So adore Him, worship Him, and confess the real you to Him so that He can provide His strength, offer you His power, cleanse you and make you whole.

The other primary way to know Him is daily study of His Word. Look deep into His Face and discern His Will; reflect on what He is saying; let Him guide your steps through scripture. His Word abides forever; God magnifies it even above His name!

Performance anxiety diminishes as we get to know Jesus and learn that His loving heart can be trusted with our most vulnerable parts.

“I AM.” (Not “I do.”)

Most of us identify who we are based what we do and the roles we play.

“I’m a teacher, electrician, doctor,” we say. “I’m a mom, a boss, a brother.”

Sometimes we identify with an illness or problem, “I’m diabetic, divorced, an ex-con.”

All these things, while important, are transient and circumstantial. None of them survive death. The only things we take with us into the next life are our soul and the relationship we established with Jesus.

Even God primarily identifies Himself by who He was, is and will always be. In Exodus God revealed His name for the first time to Moses. “I AM WHO I AM.” (Ex. 3:14) With this name He affirmed Himself as infinite, sovereign, self-sustaining, and self-sufficient.

Our love for God graduates to a higher level when we understand that we don’t love God based on what He can do for us. We love Him because of who He is, because of His intrinsic goodness and love that are the essence of His holy being.

We too are “beings”, not “doings;” our soul is the essence of ourselves and is valued by God as worth more than the whole world. “What good will be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 16:26)

Peace increases when we invite Jesus into every area of life and build our identity primarily on Him. Times will come in everyone’s life where the ability to perform is diminished by tragedy, mental or physical disability, old age, or difficult circumstances. The value of intimately knowing Jesus and Him knowing us, never diminishes. He will still know us when we’re weary, wounded, broke and broken, in a coma, unconscious, dying. Identifying with Him alone will anchor us through every wind of change and upheaval in a steadfast way that nothing else will.

We cannot depend upon our own perfection to get us into heaven. Unlike school, living for God isn’t graded on an A-F scale. Trials can’t be studied for in advance, and we have no idea when the next test will come or what will be on it.

Salvation isn’t an outward performance, it’s an inside job.

Do you know God? Does God know you? Everything else is details.