Is life one big test?

I had a dream this morning. In it I had three hours to write two exams - one for English and one for French. The English exam required writing a story. Most of my effort went to writing the story, but distractions continuously beset me and it became virtually impossible to focus throughout the dream. I tried to move into a different room hoping that would enable better concentration... All the while that clock was ticking; two hours had passed and I hadn't even started on the French exam. Yet others had completed their tests and started to leave! Finally, a breakthrough came for a good story; I decided to move back to the exam room to complete it. But to my horror, I couldn't find the room again! Near the end, while still in the dream, I realized I had only been dreaming and relief began to flood over me!

Life feels like one long continuous test sometimes. It's tiring and frustrating because our bondage to 'performance' is hideously strong. But once we realize performance is not required, we experience incredible freedom.

In the Old Testament...when we read of Hebrew priests accepting sacrifices from the people, it's crucial to recognize that they only examine the sacrificial lambs for perfection; they do not analyze the people at all. In the same way, God does not judge Christians by examining us or our works; He sees our perfect and blameless Jesus, our sacrificial lamb, and accepts His death for us. Such reliance on Jesus makes us free; our bondage to self-justification by performance is forever broken.