One of the things about the Christian life that I have had the most difficulty with is fully appreciating my identity in Christ and the implications of that identity.

I have nearly completed my sixth decade of life, all but five years of it as a believer, yet I find myself trying to earn the approval of both God and the people around me. I need to transition from trying to earn God’s approval to responding to the love and acceptance that I already have. Rather than trying to be an initiator, I need to be a responder.

In the case of God, my head knows that he already approves of me. I do not need to earn his love. By doing so, I am trying to earn what I already possess.

In the case of the people around me, it is a fools errand to try to please them due to a combination of my propensity to failure and their own similar struggles. My experience is (John Lydgate not withstanding) that I can’t please some of the people all of the time. I can’t even please myself all of the time.

Yet, I am reminded that while I do not need to earn God’s approval, my life goes better when I am obedient to what he calls me to do. While I cannot earn God’s love, nor earn my salvation, I can act in such a way that brings pleasure to God. In the parable of the talents, Jesus enjoins us to faithfulness so that in the end we hear “Well done, good and faithful slave . . .” (Matthew 25:21).

But I find this complicated by the distractions both within and around me. My life has been a process of transitioning from being a man-pleaser to being first and foremost a God-pleaser. I feel that I should be so much farther along than I am in making this transition.

I am very good at making excuses for my lack of progress. I might blame it on personality (indirectly blaming it on God who made me), I might blame the way I was brought up or I might blame it on the people in my life. While these often make it more difficult, they are not the reason for my lack of progress.

My lack of progress in making this transition is due to my pride. I want to be in charge. I want to earn what I am given. I want to be admired for what I have done. I want to finally conquer the lingering feelings of inadequacy through hard work and determination. I. I. I. I ad infinitum.

My only hope is what Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:4-7:

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (ESV)

I should follow God’s advice and cease striving and know that he is God (Psalm 46:10) and let him do the work that only he can do.

In the culture around me, there is a constant focus on results. For our sports teams, it is not enough to play well, the focus is on winning the championship. You may have heard the statement, “second place is just first loser.”

In the large city near me, all four professional sports teams are currently toward the bottom of their respective leagues. As a result, they are “rebuilding” and their management personnel constantly encourage the fan base to “trust the process.” They are pleading for patience from their fans because the fan base is conditioned to believe that winning the championship is the only acceptable result.

The same urgency to see results carries over into the church. It is tempting for church leaders to look for the newest technique for getting more people into their services. Delegations are sent to growing churches to see how that growth can be emulated in other congregations. We want to see results to validate that we are doing the right thing.

It is right to want more people sitting under the preaching of the gospel. There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to learn from others. But the danger is that we can lose focus on what real spiritual growth looks like and we lose sight of who causes that growth.

I recently heard an interview with Timothy Keller where he made a reference to Elijah building an altar on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:20 ff). His point was that Elijah was faithful to build the altar and God was faithful to send the fire. Elijah could not directly cause the fire to come down. God did not send the fire before the altar was built.

From this story, we learn that we are called to be faithful to do what God has called us to do. Having done this, we can trust God to bring about the result that he desires.

Here are a few suggestions about how we can “prepare the altar” in the same way Elijah did:

• Regularly read your Bible while asking God to show you what you need to learn from your reading
• Regularly pray – The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 shows us the balance between inward and outward focused petition
• Study the Bible with other believers with the focus on transformation rather than just information
• Volunteer to serve at your local church or community group – make yourself available to be used by God

By doing the things that God calls us to do, we are then in a position to be used by him to accomplish is purpose.

Also, we must see where our responsibility ends and where we need to trust God for the rest. Failure to define that point will lead to frustration and exhaustion. Paul made such a distinction when he wrote, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6).

If you have any other ideas about how we can “build the altar” please add them using the comment form below.