In this episode, I share more about how this truth has played out in my own life — and the steps you can take to make it real in yours.
God Desires Relationship Over Performance
One, because He loves us and wants to be close to us.
Two, because it’s through our relationship with Him that He can heal us, transform us, guide us, and strengthen us.
💝 That relationship is something that He freely offers – no perfection or goal-hitting required.
1 John 4:16 tells us that “God is love.” Love isn’t just an emotion to God; it’s a fundamental part of His divine DNA.
1 John 4:9 (NLT): “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.”
Romans 5:8 (NLT): “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
Romans 6:23 (NLT): “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
🖼️ Friend, can you see the picture those verses are painting?
The God of the universe loves you so much, He sent Jesus (His one and only Son) into the world to die on the cross, for our sins, so that we would no longer be separated from Him.
💯 Because God is holy, He is 100% free of any evil or wickedness.
This means that when sin entered the world back in the Garden of Eden, we were all destined to be eternally separated from God.
Humanity had gone from a very intimate relationship with God to a highly fractured one.
We, as humans, cannot fix that situation.
We are incapable of making ourselves holy and acceptable before God.
There’s no amount of perfection and good works that can accomplish that.
✝️ This is why God sent Jesus – who loves us just as much as God the Father does – to the cross.
Jesus took on the righteous wrath of God that we deserve.
And by simply accepting the gift of Jesus as our Savior, God then views us through Jesus.
We’re seen as holy, despite our sins and mistakes, and are able to have that full relationship with God.
📘 Friend, if God wanted us to focus on perfection and performance, the Bible would read very differently.
God wouldn’t have sent Jesus to be born into human history and die on the cross.
Also, God would’ve chosen different people – or zero people! – for His work.
🌊 Take Moses for example:
God selected Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.
Moses (as we read in Exodus 3 and 4), kept trying to wiggle his way out of the assignment.
In Moses’ mind, he’s not “good enough.”
Throughout his conversation with God, Moses shares feelings of:
Inadequacy
His concern over having a lack of authority
Fear of being disbelieved
How he has poor speech skills
And even requests that God send someone else
👉🏻 But God wasn’t looking for perfection or a certain degree of performance as a qualifier for the role He was placing upon Moses’ shoulders.
He just needed Moses to obey and remain in relationship with Him.
As we read in Exodus 3 and 4, God is clearly outlining how He’s going to carry the largest part of freeing His people from Egypt. He was the One who would give Moses the words and do the miracles.
🧕🏻 Then there’s Mary Magdalene:
In Luke 8:1-3 (NLT) it says, “Soon afterward Jesus began a tour of the nearby towns and villages, preaching and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom of God. He took his twelve disciples with him, along with some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. Among them were Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s business manager; Susanna; and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples.”
Mary Magdalene had been possessed by seven demons.
Her life had been marked by a massive amount of suffering.
Not just from the demons themselves – but how she would’ve been treated by her community. It’s highly likely that people avoided and ostracized her.
Yet, Jesus (the Son of God) didn’t just heal Mary – He invited her into His inner circle.
Jesus didn’t look at Mary and go, “She’s not perfect. She hasn’t been performing well. She’s just not ‘good enough.’”
No, He did the opposite – He drew her closer into relationship.
She got to know Jesus and witness His miracles and teachings. That was a huge blessing and honor.
❎ Friend, God isn’t looking to weigh you down with religious striving.
He wants to walk alongside you and lift your burdens.
God heard the cry of His people, the Israelites, put a plan in motion to free them – and then took them to the Promised Land.
Jesus saw Mary’s suffering and healed her – and then brought her into His close circle.
And that’s what God wants for you, friend.
He wants you to lay down your striving – and this crushing weight you’ve been carrying – and replace it with learning how to bask in His love.
(Need help doing just that? Check out Relate Escape Place.)