Relationship not Works

Invited to Know Him

This was recently posted on Facebook and sent to me by a friend. Sadly, my friend didn’t put any accreditation so I cannot acknowledge its author. It will have to be ‘ANON’ for now.

“When you enter into a relationship with Jesus, you are not entering into a system that is kept by hard work, or where you are graded on your performance. You are not told to check the boxes, or keep a running tally of your deeds. The Father does not even grade His children on a curve. YOU ARE SIMPLY INVITED TO KNOW HIM.” – ANON - reproduced exactly as received

The Lord, as He so often does, immediately started speaking to me about my own, and all our relationships with Him. What do think the Lord wants from us?

Do you think He requires our hard work? Surely that would be working for our salvation rather than receiving it through Grace and as a free gift. Certainly the Lord appreciates our hard work after we are saved, but even then it is only as His Spirit directs us and not ‘works’ we take on for ourselves. We can all please ourselves greatly by our ‘works’ but they were undertaken in our hearts for our own satisfaction and the Lord counts them, as did Paul, as rubbish. ‘Works’ are not from God – He only calls us and invites us to do things for Him and they alone are of value to Him. The rest is all ego boosting for our very selfish selves. Do not think that, on that day, He will appreciate you saying, ‘Lord – look at what I did for you’. No – He will simply ask what you did about the things He asked you to do.

Do you think, perhaps, you are graded on your performance? Well, in a word, NO. When the Lord asks you to do something for Him, he looks for your willing heart. He doesn’t say whether or not you did a good job or even how good a job you have or have not done. You don’t earn grades, nor points, nor ‘gold stars’ in the Kingdom of God. Actually, you earn nothing. Everything that comes from God comes FREE.

Do you, perhaps, think that you check the boxes when doing God’s work? Not one box is there to be checked. You may have boxes to check – God doesn’t. You may check your own “Good Job” box – God doesn’t even have such a thing.

Are you one, perhaps, who keeps a running tally of your deeds? It has always been my impression that God doesn’t unless He actually gave you the tasking in the first place. In fact keeping a tally on your own deeds is rather like listing the rubbish you throw out of your home each day – it is meaningless. So many good and well meaning folk never even stop to ask the Lord what He wants them to do – they just dive in and do things. Now I am sure that God doesn’t ignore everything we do that is not of Him. He will probably say, “Well done, BUT what about that which I asked you to do? Where is that on your list?”

John Bevere once told a great story of a dream, I think it was, of when he got to heaven. He was waiting in line when an angel called out, “James Bloggs – prayer warrior, step forward.” A man stepped out of the line, received a crown from Jesus, and was ushered to the next room. The ‘supervising’ angel then called several more names with the same result. Then at last he called out “John Bevere, demon slayer, step forward.” John said that he thought there must be another with his name so he didn’t move, Again the angel cried out, “John Bevere, demon slayer, step forward.” Again John didn’t move. The angel called it all out again, and as John again stayed put, the angel walked along the line and ushered him out in front of Jesus. “But Lord , I am an evangelist and a teacher – I am not a demon slayer.” He protested. Jesus looked at him and asked, “But I called you to the deliverance ministry – why did you ignore my call?”

The Father does not even grade His children on a curve. No – God doesn’t look at others and look at you and decide where you fit on the grade scale. He never compares us to anyone else – only against what He called us to do.

YOU ARE SIMPLY INVITED TO KNOW HIM. This is it. God calls and invites us to a relationship with Himself. Thats all He asks – to have a relationship with us – for us to get to know Him. Everything else stems from this relationship. Our ministry, our friends, our families, our finances – everything comes from our relationship with God. He made us to have relationship with Him. He loves nothing more than personal time spent together with us in fellowship and friendship.

Simple really isn’t it??