God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God.  

- Ephesians 2:8 NLT

Have you ever been fooled into thinking that your good deeds or talents were why God loved you? We can easily believe this because our parents consistently reward us for doing good, right?

These rewards often began as early as kindergarten when mom and dad said, "you make us very happy when you make good grades." Or "if you do good on your dance recital today, we will get you a special present.

And yes, there is nothing wrong with doing the right things. And doing good always feels good.

But this can be a trap. Many call it "the performance trap."

And the struggle with the performance trap is that we believe God only does good for those who do good things.

The truth is that doing good is not how we get rewards from God, and we don't go to heaven for being good!

We receive the reward of heaven not from doing good, but through accepting Christ as our Savior.

The scripture says we were saved by grace through faith.

And this is not by doing good…we cannot earn it; it is a gift from God!

Remember, receiving Christ as our Savior is by God's gift of grace and through faith.

The Bible says in Romans 3:23 NKJV that if salvation were based on our own efforts, no one could be saved: "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Ask Christ into your life today, and here's how:

If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9-10, NKJV)

Blessings,
Thomas