
In our journey of faith, it’s easy to fall into patterns of relating to God that are unhealthy, even if they seem noble on the surface. In this series, we’ve already explored Life Under God (living in fear of His judgment), Life Over God (living as if we don’t need Him), and Life From God (treating Him as a divine vending machine). Now, we turn to another common but damaging mindset: Life For God. This is the belief that our worth, significance, and even God’s love for us are tied to how much we serve Him. At its core, Life For God distorts the beauty of a relationship with Him into a transactional exchange of service for approval. In this blog post, I will unpack this mindset, its dangers, and how it can subtly creep into our lives.
The Burden of Life For God
The Life For God mindset is rooted in the belief that God requires us to serve Him all the time—and the more (or better) we serve Him, the more He will love us. This belief often comes with an unspoken but deeply felt corollary: if we don’t do enough, He will not love us. When we’re honest with ourselves, we often feel like we’re falling short. No matter how much we do, it never feels like enough to earn God’s love. This creates a cycle of striving, guilt, and exhaustion.
This view of God elevates our service and good deeds above God Himself. Instead of seeing Him as a loving Father who desires a relationship, we see Him as a taskmaster who keeps score. This distortion leads people to one of two extremes:
1. Some become ultra-religious.
They throw themselves into religious activities with extra passion, often in ways that are visible to others. Their service becomes a performance, not just for God but for the people around them. They may volunteer for every church event, lead multiple ministries, or adopt rigid spiritual disciplines—all in an effort to prove their worth to God and others.
2. Others give up on religion altogether.
They feel overwhelmed by the pressure to perform and conclude that they can never do enough to earn God’s love. Instead of experiencing the freedom and grace of the Gospel, they walk away, believing that faith is just another impossible standard they can’t meet.
Both responses stem from the same root: a misunderstanding of God’s character and the nature of His love. When we live for God in this way, we miss the joy of living with Him.
How Life For God Manifests in Our Lives
The Life For God mindset can show up in subtle but destructive ways. Here are a few common patterns:
1. Religious Activity Becomes the Source of Meaning and Significance
In this mindset, serving God becomes the primary way we derive purpose and value. Instead of finding our identity in who God says we are, we tie it to what we do for Him. God becomes secondary—or even tertiary—to the work we do in His name. We might say we’re serving Him, but in reality, we’re serving our own need for validation.
2. Competition for Holiness
When service becomes the measure of our worth, it’s easy to start comparing ourselves to others. We look for people who seem less “holy” than we are so we can feel better about ourselves. This comparison game can lead to pride, judgmentalism, and a distorted view of grace. On the flip side, it can also lead to complacency: if we think God will forgive us no matter what, we might stop striving for holiness altogether.
3. God Becomes an Angry Taskmaster
In the Life For God mindset, God is often seen as perpetually disappointed or upset with us. His primary activity seems to be looking for reasons to punish us or withhold His love. This view of God drives people away from Him rather than drawing them near. Instead of running to Him in times of failure, we avoid Him out of fear and shame.
Examples of Life For God in Action
To better understand this mindset, let’s look at a few examples from Scripture and everyday life.
1. The Older Brother in the Prodigal Son Story
In Luke 15, Jesus tells the story of a father and his two sons. The younger son famously squanders his inheritance and returns home, where his father welcomes him with open arms. But the older brother, who has stayed home and served his father faithfully, is furious. He says, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends” (Luke 15:29).
The older brother’s words reveal a Life For God mindset. He served his father not out of love or relationship but to earn a reward. When his brother received grace instead of punishment, the older brother felt cheated. He missed the point: the father’s greatest desire was not their service but their presence. As the father says, “You are always with me, and everything I have is yours” (Luke 15:31). The older brother’s service had become a burden, not a joy.
2. Public Service for Human Praise
Another hallmark of Life For God is the need for others to see and applaud our good works. Jesus addressed this tendency in Matthew 6:1, warning, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” When we serve for the sake of recognition, we trade the eternal reward of God’s approval for the fleeting praise of people.
3. The Truth About God’s Love
The most important truth to remember is this: God’s love is not based on anything we do (or do not do). Ephesians 2:8-9 reminds us, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” Our service doesn’t earn God’s love; it’s a response to the love He has already given us.
Conclusion.
The Life For God mindset turns faith into a performance and service into a burden. But the Gospel invites us into something far better: a relationship with a loving Father who delights in us, not because of what we do but because of who He is. When we shift from living for God to healthier ways of relating to God, we discover the freedom, joy, and peace that come from knowing we are fully loved—not by our efforts, but by His grace. If you find yourself in a Life For God cycle, contact me to find out how professional coaching can help you lay down the burden of striving and take up the light yoke of a relationship with Him.
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