Ever wondered why there are negative connotations to the word ‘Perform’ or ‘Performance’?, Especially when it comes to faith environments.

You’ve probably heard people in church say a lot of times; “we are not here to perform'”or “Were not giving a performance”, and they don’t stop there, they carry on to say “It is ministry. We’re here to minister”.

We live in a world that is largely performance based. You have to perform in other to get a reward.

If you do receive rewards without any level of performance, there’s a tendency for you to feel that you have somehow cheated the system and truth is, most people will not regard the reward as much as if you actually put in maximum performance for it.

So were attuned to ‘Do before you can Get’.

It’s why the world glorifies hard work, performance and most importantly, results.

While your journey might be sad, long, hard and painful, most people aren’t willing to listen to it until there’s a good result in the end to show for it. So daily were striving to hit that result so we can validate the struggle through the journey and then the result at the end of the journey.

All of these natural laws apply only to the natural, when we climb a level to the supernatural, we see that these laws don’t apply.

Jesus death on the cross came at no price and no cost to either of us. We didn’t have to sit and think of what we could do to enjoy what His death brought for us. God did not require an instance of participation in the process and there was no grading of any mans performance to determine His coming, His death and His resurrection.

Now that He’s risen and unlocked the blessings of His resurrection, why do we feel a need to perform to receive or do something to earn anything from Him?

We think God like man sometimes, sitting out in some elevated pews watching for who performs the best to award her/him the most.

Contrary to that, He’s there right inside you cheering you on to do better than yesterday through the help of His Spirit in you.

God’s love for us is not dependent on our performance. It is not about what we have given or haven’t given. The irony in this is that the realisation of this unconditional love pushes us back to do over and above for Him, and not even so we can impress Him, but just so we can attempt to express our own love to Him too.

Quit performing and start Living!