Beyond the Spiritual Stage: Letting Go of Performance Anxiety with God

In this eye-opening episode of Anchored Not Anxious, host Terri Hutchinson tackles the concept of "performing for God" and how it can generate unnecessary anxiety in our spiritual lives. Terri shares her personal experiences and insights to help listeners understand and overcome this common struggle.

Key topics:

• Understanding performance anxiety in a spiritual context
• How perfectionism and approval-seeking behavior affect our relationship with God
• God's true expectations vs. our misconceptions
• Practical steps to break free from the performance mindset

Terri guides listeners through the process of reshaping their perception of God, emphasizing His unconditional love, unlimited grace, and forgiveness. She offers actionable advice on how to cultivate a healthier, more authentic relationship with God that isn't based on performance metrics.

This episode is perfect for anyone who feels burdened by the need to constantly measure up in their spiritual life. Join Terri as she explores how to embrace God's grace and love without the pressure of performance.

Meet me on my Facebook Page at Terri L Hutchinson

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Transcript

In this episode, I will describe what performing for God looks like, how it generates anxiety, God’s actual expectations, and why you don’t need to perform. 

Now if you are wondering who does that? Who performs for God? That would be me. Oh and occasionally I still do.

The term performance anxiety is the fear or worry about being in front of a real or imagined audience. It stems from a belief that we might not measure up to expectations. 

It can occur in various situations:  work presentations, interviews, teaching a group, or showcasing a talent in a competition.

Even your job or role may feel like an ongoing performance because you are being evaluated on achieving goals or milestones.

Further, we question ourselves: do I meet the standards, have I done enough, or how can I improve further?

For some of us, performance anxiety can manifest in our spiritual lives, especially if we are approval seekers, perfectionists, or self-shamer

Human evaluation and analysis traps us into believing God is also an evaluator. We become a performer for God. We believe He’s critiquing every thought, decision, relationship, and conversation. And our mountain of wrongs and failures creates stress or anxiety.

Here’s what performing for God looks like.

For years, I kept a mental running tally of my wrongs: gossiping, angry conversations with my husband, forgetting to read the Bible, forgetting to pray for people, self-centeredness, and feeling bothered when asked to help others.

As an approval seeker and perfectionist, I believed each sin was a failure in God’s eyes.

I learned that to disappoint someone can cause separation. I discovered a poor choice doesn’t get forgotten or forgiven. I saw grace given, but not always to me.

And I assumed this was God’s way. I did not believe God could be anything other than what I knew and experienced.

I developed this crazy idea that God set limits on forgiveness, mercy, and grace. Performing poorly meant my allotment of each could run out.

Does all this sound like the thoughts of a child?

For many, our perceptions are painted with the colors handed to us in our youth. We carry certain perceptions into adulthood because experience sustains the image.

If this is anything like your perception of God, then let’s change it. God does not want us performing for Him. It’s not the type of relationship God seeks with you and me.

A performance-based view of our relationship with God is flawed. Here’s what God does expect from us.

· God expects you to see yourself as a work in progress. He sees your heart and mind seeking to do His will. But sometimes you don’t. He gets it.

· God expects you to trade self-condemnation for confession. H expects you to cast off shame and grab His grace.

· He expects we will sin because we’re sinners. If God thought we could be perfect and without sin, he wouldn’t have sent His Son to save us from the eternal separation caused by sin.

For this reason, we can quit performing. Quit performing and anxiety dissipates.

If you have been performing, then here’s your action steps.

· Do not create a mental image of God having emotions of disgust, disappointment, rejection, or anger. This creates performance anxiety.

· Remind yourself, there’s no anger or finger pointing by God because you fail to be a good human.

· Focus on His unconditional love. No need for self-condemnation. No self-shaming. God has unlimited forgiveness, mercy, and grace for you.

· Give yourself a do-over. Seek forgiveness, attempt to do differently, and trust in God’s love. His grace is sufficient. You can trust it.

· His Grace relays His love, not anger. His Grace streams acceptance, not dissatisfaction.

· His Grace removes self-contempt. Grace gives you what you don’t deserve.

· Our human counterparts find this hard to do, but not God. He is invested in the relationship, always. Never forget it.

Here is your takeaway. You and I can trust God will never give up on us even when we falter.

God values everyone. Believers in God and in his son, Jesus, do not need to measure their self-worth or their performance. As John 3 tells us, God didn’t send his Son among us to condemn us, but to save us.

If you know someone struggling with this, share the podcast link. Everyone deserves to discover how much God truly cares for their unique and beautiful soul. 

Until next time,