What If You had a Performance Review with God? What would He Say?

Can I ask you a question? What would happen if you were invited to a face-to-face meeting with Jesus? Suppose it was just you and he for an hour, sitting directly across from each other, so close your knees were almost touching. What do you think he would say? Would you be uncomfortable? Is that a meeting you would look forward to? Would you eagerly jump at the chance to spend an hour with the incarnate God? Or, would you dread it? What would you do if you were told to spend an hour alone with Jesus?

For many, spending any time alone with God sounds absolutely wonderful. They know that some day they will be in his presence and they eagerly look forward to their unbroken fellowship with him. But for many others, unfortunately, such an invitation doesn’t sound too inviting. It’s not that they don’t love Jesus and long to finally and fully be in his presence; it’s just that many of them–or I should say “us”–live with a tremendous sense of guilt in our respective faith-walks. We know we don’t measure up to God’s high and holy standards. We believe that we are constantly letting Jesus down, embarrassing him and even causing him pain. And if you felt like that about someone–a boss, a parent, a spouse or a friend–would you look forward to spending time with him or her? Probably not.

So what do you think Jesus would say? If the conversation went badly, what words would he use? I’ve asked that question to adults and teenagers all over the country. The answers are typically the same:

I’m so disappointed in you.

What were you thinking?

You are a serious letdown.

You have no idea the damage you’ve done to my reputation.

If you were really a Christian, you wouldn’t act like you do.

If you really loved me, you’d try harder.

We’re done.

And one of my personal favorites: I’m really getting tired of forgiving the same old sin.

For a group of people  (Christians) that are supposedly saved by grace, loved unconditionally and secure in our relationship with Christ, we certainly carry a lot of guilt and relational baggage toward God. Our hearts and minds are filled with tapes that play over and over, and the messages aren’t very inspiring. You don’t measure up. You’re not doing enough. I can’t believe you call yourself a Christian.

The problem is that many of the things we believe Jesus would say to us are actually things he never said, and never would say. They’re patently unbiblical and don’t represent the heart of Christ. As Holy Spirit-sealed followers of Jesus, we must learn to push back against the mental messages that tell us how fed up with us God is. We must bring those rogue thoughts under the authority of our loving Lord Jesus. We need to rethink our theology and let God’s revealed truth direct our beliefs about him and not some fictitious statement that doesn’t even come close to accurately representing how Jesus feels about us. In short, we need to reject the things that Jesus didn’t say and start believing the things that he did.

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