There is a pretty clear message in the first verses of Galatians 3. Do you remember reading it before? As I read it in The Message, I see bits of myself—I can slip into crazy Galatian now and then. It’s all in the attitude.

You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it's obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.

Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God's Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!  
Galatians 3:1–4, MSG

When we are born again, our mind and spirit recognize our salvation is a free gift from God, but somehow our soulishness doesn’t get the message. We continue the habit of living by performance. We live unaware that motives other than God’s love have begun to corrupt our serving into strife, contention, and fear. We have performed since early childhood, and the structures are built deeply into us.

We argue that we are called to do good works, and we pull out Bible verses to prove our point.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10, NIV
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16, NIV

We read these verses and focus on our works—our performance. That makes it a challenge to grow spiritually. We get stuck there, and equate spiritual maturity with trying hard to follow the rules in the Bible—that’s performance orientation. That’s how the Pharisees lived in Jesus’ time.

The problem doesn’t lie with our good works, accomplishments, or obeying Biblical laws. The problem is in the false motivation that drives us, the intentions deep within. We perform to gain love, to earn love, to earn acceptance, to meet self-determined standards of righteousness, but all of this has already been given to us by the Lord. It is our attitude that is the issue, our reason for doing good works—the message that says: “I will not be loved unless I deserve or earn it.” It means constant striving. “If I just try harder, I can close the gap. I’ll read another book, take every sermon to heart, learn new disciplines, serve more, work harder, and be nicer to the people in my life.”

The more we work to be fulfilled in this way, the less fulfilled we will be. When our lives are so self-focused, they are as tiny as a seed. And like seeds, we will not flourish if left high and dry on a performance=love attitude structure that we have built inside ourselves. We need to ask God to help us tear those structures down and give our strivings over to him.

When you do that—when this seed, this life is given to God—that tiny seed is planted in the rich soil that God has prepared just for you, and it grows and flourishes into the you that God made you to be.