My wife, Becky, and I have been having our usual January conversations these past couple of weeks. Namely, that means we have been thinking about our plans for the year. What are our personal goals and rhythms for work, friendships, health, discipleship, and reading or learning? How will we plan to disciple our kids in this season? What plans can we make to be sure we rest well this year? What financial goals do we need to focus on?
While we are particularly wired for that kind of thinking, a certain level of personal discipline and striving is a uniquely Christian calling.
When you are born-again by grace through faith in Jesus, Scripture says you are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). And as such, the Bible actually says quite a lot about this newfound life we have in Jesus not being our own – but His – and the fruit that follows. No longer slaves to sin, you are “slaves to righteousness” (Rom. 6:18). Paul writes that one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control (Gal. 5:22-23) and that he “disciplines (his) body and keeps it under control” (1 Cor. 9:27). Amidst the numerous callings and commissionings and ‘one-anothers’ we find for ourselves in God’s Word, we are over and again taught that to follow Jesus will mean we are “making the best use of the time” (Eph. 5:16) in every area of our life. Personal discipline to strive toward and achieve what the Lord calls you into is a good and God-glorifying endeavor.
The gospel reorients our lives around living for Jesus by giving us a new heart with new motivations and new desires to do so. Yet, if we fail to grasp the fullness of the gospel, that new creation ‘want to’ will turn into a feeling of ‘have to’ rather quickly.
Calvin famously described the human heart as an ‘idol factory.’ We can turn even the highest calling of our lives into something about ourselves in the blink of an eye. So, the call and desire to grow as individuals, in our relationships, at our jobs, for the sake of making disciples – all good and wonderful things worthy of our time and energy – can become about fulfilling a need for self-worth, or feeling safe and secure as we gaze at our accomplishments, or about our crafting a certain life for ourselves to enjoy rather than about the glory and purposes of God. When our hearts slide into those spaces, we’ve entered the ‘have to’ feeling compelling our decisions. And that’s not how God wants His children to live.
Rather, Jesus makes a very different offer for those who will come to Him.
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30)
Because Jesus gives is His worth, and His identity, and His grace, and His goodness when we come to Him by faith, we can live free from trying to gain those things anywhere else! The gospel moves all the feelings of ‘have to’ aside and leaves us only with the ‘want to’ desire to strive to follow the Lord. Not striving to gain anything, but from a place of already having everything we need in Jesus.
Jesus transforms how we live our lives by simultaneously re-orienting our hearts with a desire to strive and toil and discipline ourselves for Him as well as gifting us with an ability to strive from a place of freedom and joy as we find we already have everything we need in Christ. It is in the disciplining of ourselves for the sake of Jesus that we find true joy when we rightly understand who He is and what He has done for us.
What might the Lord be calling you to this year as you seek to strive for His glory? How might Jesus be calling you to learn to work from, not for, the grace, love, worth, and goodness He supplies?