Mighty: Thriving in a High-Performance World Without Losing Your SoulSample

# Distinctions Make the Difference On Day 1 of this devotional, we learned that the performance-driven mindset can impact your soul and your most important relationships. On Day 2 , we explored how the Gospel is one antidote to the anxiety, exhaustion, and dissatisfaction that can come from a performance-driven life. The alternate reality is a life filled with God’s Power, Purpose, and Presence. Today, you will learn how to make this shift. ## The Antidote to Performance is Not More Performance Because of the performance-driven culture, a common tactic for those who yearn for life in Christ is to change behavior: pray more, fast more, attend more, serve more, give more. Doing so, however, only exchanges one form of performance for another. Seeking God’s power, purpose and presence through behavioral modification is the opposite of Christ’s message and mission. He warns against starting on the outside to experience internal transformation: > Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. (Matthew 23:26) External behaviors may relieve some of the world’s pressures, but don’t really change a person. In fact, starting from the outside and expecting spiritual change on the inside can lead to frustration. Yet, it’s the most common approach. The Apostle Paul paves the alternative in Romans 12:2: > “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” In other words: “Think Different” is the foundation to not conforming to the world. While this guidance is easier said than done, it also makes sense. ## Distinctions Lead to the Destination If a life filled with God’s power, purpose, and presence is the destination, distinctions are the GPS to get there. If going back to the world’s performance-based life is the wrong way, distinctions provide the course-correction. Making distinctions between the ways of the world and the way of the spirit is how one thinks differently instead of conforming. The power of distinctions shows up its adaptability. For any given area, you can ask, “For this situation, am I X or am I Y ?” where X vs Y is the empowering distinction. In mentoring relationships, I can ask the same question, picking the appropriate distinction for the scenario. The question is both simple and deep because, to answer it, you need to know two things: what X and Y are, and how to distinguish between the two. When mentoring, I have found three broad buckets always come up: * Work/Finances * Relationships/Family * Spiritual Health Depending on the situation, the right distinction can help cultivate the new way of thinking. The nine distinctions that can help you make these changes and decisions fall into the three areas we talked about in Day 2: God’s Power, Purpose, and Presence. ### Power The following three help you when you feel powerless. For example, if you are co-dependent in a relationship, or if you're feeling trapped at work, you may want to ask yourself, “Am I starving or filled in this scenario?” Often, I will discern that I am starving, and need to drill further into how Christ can fill me. Here are three distinctions, each one based on Scripture, that can help you to develop power in the Spirit: * Starving vs Filled * Fearful vs Courageous * Prideful vs Humble ### Purpose Imagine you are exhausted, but unfulfilled, at work. The distinction that a mentor might explore is whether you are “driven” but not “called.” That might lead to discerning your calling as a Christ follower. It could also fuel conversations around the costs and causes of your current drive. Three distinctions which can help identify whether you are pursuing purpose or performance are: * Driven vs Called * Busy vs Building * Fickle vs Foundational ### Presence Eventually the demands of performance catch up with you, and you will feel spiritually “dry.” But how do you dig into it with more focus? Three areas that can help to explore areas for a greater infusion of God’s presence are: * Resentful vs Restored * Distracted vs Deep * Regretful vs Redeemed Many men, for example, drive hard because of resentment, often towards their father. But without calling out this distinction explicitly, this root cause may never surface. To learn more about each distinction and to read the more expanded version of these devotionals, make sure you are following along by signing up: [ https://px.ignite-sf.com/mighty-youversion-bonus ](https://px.ignite-sf.com/mighty-youversion-bonus)