If you are like me, I once viewed my relationship with God as a checklist to follow each day.  I eventually learned the hard way that was not what God expected of me. In fact, I could hardly believe it when I first understood that Jesus’s death on the cross ended that way of living forever! Now my Staff of 18 and I share this in our counseling explaining God has something better than that for them.

One of the key characteristics of living by checklists as a Christian is that success is supposedly linked to how hard you try.  That is why many Christians are addicted to THC, not the chemical in marijuana but another THC – Try Harder Christianity.  The idea is that if you will just try hard enough to keep your checklist of right and wrong, you will finally live a full life as a Christian.  But if you are failing, you just aren’t trying hard enough.  Commitment, redidication, putting yourself in a position to be blessed, following hard after Jesus, and paying the price, all carry this same Try Harder Christianity idea but never work for long.

God’s only alternative to Checklist Christianity is to exchange it for another THC – Trust Him Christianity, as revealed in what Jesus called the New Covenant. So, let me share the basics of the New Covenant.  Through Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, God has done for you and to you what you could not do for yourself.

• He has eternally forgiven you for your past, present and future sins. You can stop trying hard to get forgiveness. You already have all you will every need.
• He has given you a new identity! You can stop trying hard to create one. He has already given you a great identity! You need to discover it, though.
• He has come to live in you to love you and live through you. You can stop trying hard to make yourself a better Christian/person. He has already provided His Son, Jesus Christ, in you to do that for and through you.

Since all of that is true, wouldn’t it be freeing to get rid of your checklist? No more thinking

• I must read my Bible today–check.
• I must pray today–check.
• I must give money at church today–check.
• I must serve God this week–check.
• I must avoid that habitual sin–check.

These are definitely important and enjoyable when they are relational instead of transactional. Feeling that you “have to” instead of that you “want to” is stressful. That’s why if doing them as a checklist is your main focus, they can produce surprising, unwanted problems, including,

• Emotional struggles, such as discouragement, resentment, anger and depression.
• Physical problems, such as fatigue and fitful sleep; conflict in relationships
• Spiritual problems, like disillusionment, self-condemnation and rebellion

God wants how we live our lives to be based on the overflow of a dependent relationship with Christ in us, not on trying harder and harder to perform all the tasks on our checklists.  Let go of them and live free in Christ’s love and life in you!