Are You Moved By Love Or Performance?

Society measures our success based on our performance. While our performance does matter, being moved by love will take us to greater heights, leaving no room for anxiousness. Are you moved by love or performance?

Being the ambitious person that I am, I always look for results. 

I thought this was a good thing until I found myself constantly feeling anxious and easily discouraged when I didn't see the results I had planned on achieving. 

God had given me great visions for this year, so I started planning what needed to happen to turn those visions into reality. I planned how many conferences and speaking events I had to be a part of, what projects had to be completed, and the list could go on and on. 

But the moment I didn't get accepted to speak at a conference that I was so longing to be a part of, I felt discouraged. 

I started having thoughts that I wasn't good enough to God because I didn't see the results that I desired to see. I became anxious about my future and the plans that God had for me. 

I didn't know how to shake this anxiousness off of me.

But then during my alone time with God, he revealed to me the root of my anxiousness: I was acting out of performance mode and not His love for me. 

God reminded me that I am loved, chosen, and highly favored just as I am. There is nothing that I can do to make him love me more or less. My performance was never the determination of His love for me in the first place. God loves me simply because I am his beloved child. 

You are loved and highly favored by God just as you are. 

We don't have to earn the status of being highly favored by the Lord. God loved us even while we were sinners. Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

With God, it's never about our performance. God loves us because he sees us as His child. 2 Corinthians 6:18 says, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters.." Our identity is found in being a child of God. 

When we act out in performance mode, we are coming from a place of need. But when we are moved by God's love for us, we are acting from a place of rest and fullness. 

When we do things out of love, it leaves no room for anxiousness to enter into our hearts. We no longer do things because we want to see results, but because we love God. Performance demands results, but love doesn't. Love doesn't expect anything back because it is never self-seeking (1 Corinthians 13:5). 

Our love for God should always be the driving force of everything we do. 

We can reach our goals, get millions of followers, or get the promotion we always wanted, but if we do not have love, our accomplishments mean nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:2-3 says,  "If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing."

Our accomplishments mean nothing without love. When we seek God's love and walk out His love, the fruit of our works will follow. We no longer have to live under the pressure of seeing results because we are already satisfied with the love we receive from our heavenly father. 

When Jesus got baptized, God spoke from heaven and said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). God spoke this unto Jesus before Jesus started his ministry and did the miracles that we see later. 

Know that God loves you and is well pleased with you because He made you. God isn't inviting you to start ministries or accomplish great things - He's inviting you to be His child and know Him more. Ministries and great works will flow out of our love and devotion to Jesus. 

Although God has opened doors for me to launch Living Revelations ministries, I never want my life to be about having a ministry, but simply to know Jesus more and to share His love with others. 

Are you acting out of a need to prove yourself or out of God's love for you? Have you accepted the reality that God loves you just as you are? 

We will find true freedom and joy when we live each day filled with God's love. As you spend more time with Jesus, His love for you will become more real. The enemy's goal is to make you think God's love isn't enough, but God's love is the only thing you need in life. So remember, be moved by love and not performance.

Prayer: Lord, I want to live each day with the fullness of your love.