I am so glad that God does not base my significance on my performance.   If He did, my thinking could move like this: As long as I obey Him (am successful) He loves me and extends His grace to me, but if I don’t obey Him, He will not love me nor extend His grace to me.  That is the lie from last week-the lie of a performance-based self-worth.  The truth for the Christ-follower is simply that in Jesus, I am fully forgiven and completely pleasing to Him.  When I receive the truth, I live.  Talk about freedom!

                We wrestle on another plane also, the plane of relationships with others.  How do they think about me, what do they think about me, can I really not care what they think or not let it affect me?  These are all questions we ask.  Today we move onto lie #2, the approval trap.  A trap (like the first one—from the pit of hell itself) tells me my significance is based on others’ opinions of me.   That feels like the weather around here—fickle and ever changing!  As we examine this lie today, ask God to help you see into your own heart and life—do I believe the lie?  If I do, I die.  Let’s look into this lie more thoroughly today so that we can live in victory by receiving the truth of God about us.

 Hang tough ‘cuz it’s a Jesus thing