Bound to Be Free: Escaping Performance to Be Captured by Grace

Bound to Be Free uses Scripture to recalibrate our hearts so we can walk in the freedom Christ has provided from sin and from the encumbrances that weigh us down.
There’s nothing more heartbreaking than to see saints who are bound by performance, not realizing there is freedom through Christ. In the midst of performance, we try to please everyone, to do what we think makes God happy, to live a “good” life . . . and we don’t realize that the walls are closing in around us. There are four walls in the trap of performance: our trajectory, our relationships, our affirmation, and our peers. Each of these speaks deeply to our souls as something we need in order to have a “good life”—but we enslave ourselves to something that will never be enough.

Instead, God invites us into the trap of grace, which frees us. The life-giving walls of this trap are trust in God, reconciliation with God, affection from God, and partnership with our brothers and sisters in Christ. As we acknowledge how we are bound by performance, we can—with God’s help—flee into the captivity of grace and rest in God’s unfailing love.