Scripture

Our verse for today comes from 2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

Background

Does your company perform end-of-year evaluations? Do you have to fill out a form, highlighting your accomplishments and assessing how you met your goals for the past year? There might be a section where you list your strengths and weaknesses and note areas where you want to improve in the coming year. You might even have an opportunity to provide some feedback about your manager and offer suggestions about the direction of your department. When we do these reviews at my job, I usually end up wondering how much good they actually do. Sometimes we might not even meet with anyone to go over them, and I’m not sure I’ve seen a whole lot of change that came out of this process. But in our Christian walk, evaluations and reviews take on a slightly different flavor. When we are about the business of doing God’s work, instead of never doing evaluations or waiting until the year-end, we are tempted to rate ourselves at every turn. When we have a good couple days of quiet time, we give ourselves a good review and feel like we’ve got it all together. If we blow it with a co-worker or feel like we missed a chance to witness or minister to someone, then we might write ourselves off or even feel like a failure. We know we’re saved by grace, but our focus is captured by how we are performing or what we think we are accomplishing.

Application

But is that the way Christ wants us to spend our time? Is His kingdom coming and His will being done based on how I rate my performance? There is a place for desiring to do well and for wanting to reflect our Savior. But what good comes from giving yourself an “A” or an “F,” if that’s the end result of whatever you did? Too often our deeds are done solely to give us an “A” or make up for an “F.” But that’s not what Christ wants to see standing before His judgment seat. He wants to see a heart in love with Him, seeking His glory and trusting in His mercy. He’s not interested in scorecards. So do, and trust. Trust before you do. Trust while you do it. And trust that He’s the one who’s responsible for getting it done.

Charge

As we seek Him today, make today a continuation of yesterday and a prelude to tomorrow. Don’t let yourself focus on today’s grade, but instead continually give over everything you do to the divine plan of God.

Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words