Do you ever find yourself going in circles? You want God to be proud of you, and you want so badly to be a righteous person, but you keep failing over and over and getting burnt out? You may be thinking in the right direction, but focusing on the wrong goal. I’ve done that too, and now I truly know I have the right goal in mind!

The past year, I noticed I was getting burnt out in trying to be “righteous / a better person”. But it seemed like I was getting nowhere… as soon as I thought I was strong, I’d fall. The enemy knows my weakness and where I’m likely to be tempted to make me fall. In the end, I felt burnt out and just didn’t feel like pushing myself to grow spiritually strong. I felt “what’s the point?” Almost completely losing self-discipline. I realize though the same thing sometimes happens in the physical. I go to the workout for an hour and a half, to discipline my body to pain in order to gain muscle. After the workout, I eat and drink protein and other stuff in order to pack on muscle. I love the results, but then there are days when I forget to eat, or I let my muscles dehydrate, and I think to myself. “What’s the point?” I pour out all this time, money, and pain just to lose so much that I’ve worked for in a week, in just one day. It’s discouraging, and I feel as if I lost my self-discipline.

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. – Isaiah 26:3

Well, I started going to a rock climbing gym once or twice a week, and just like a regular workout, I use almost every muscle in my body until failure. But this compared to working out —I enjoy. In fact, I find myself outside of the gym working out when hated that before and wouldn’t even think about doing it outside of my normal workout times. So what changed in my self-discipline? Why am I so willing to beat my body up now than I was before.

What changed was my focus. In climbing, my whole goal and focus is to reach the top of whatever ‘route’ I am on. Even when my muscles are failing and in so much pain, I don’t give up, because I want so badly to accomplish my goal. Unlike being in a workout room, where my focus was just pain (no pain no gain), my focus is no longer on breaking down the muscle, my focus is on something much “higher”. And the results are even better than before.

The same goes for our spiritual battle– our spiritual workout. If we focus only on reading our Bible, or developing our prayer life, or putting aside music, games, movies, and relationships that don’t lead us to Christ, then we will fail. We just feel burnt out when we fall again. But when we make our goal CHRIST, everything all the sudden becomes worth it. When we fall, we all the sudden pick ourselves back up and head right back to our goal– CHRIST. When we set Him as our prize, then the pain is all the sudden worth it. The self-discipline is all the sudden worth it. We are willing to give up all it takes to reach our goal because we know there is something satisfying about reaching it. ALL satisfying.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. – Colossians 3:2

Now I understand truly why God’s Word says to “set your hearts and minds on things above and not below” For who would run after a goal to pain if ‘pain’ is the only goal? In Galatians 3:2 Paul calls out the Galatians who started setting their goal on religious works other than Christ, saying. “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before your very eyes, Christ was portrayed as Crucified, let me ask you one thing? Did you really receive the Holy Spirit by observing the law? Or was it by believing what you heard? (Grace through Faith)”.

Paul calls out the Galatians, for they had set aside the goal—that was having a relationship with Jesus Christ—and they started focusing on their checklist of rules and regulations they must keep in order to be on God’s “good person list”.

Works is NOT why we are saved. God’s Grace is what has saved us! So if you find yourself constantly getting spiritually burnt out, could it be you are trying to live by your own righteousness and not Jesus’?

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. – Ephesians 2:8-9

Make a goal to make Jesus your goal! Put God first in everything you do and Trust in Him! So if you find yourself getting burnt out trying to be righteous, STOP and remember that when God looks at You, He doesn’t look for YOUR righteousness, but He looks for JESUS’ Righteousness living in You—You are not saved by works; you are not saved in how much you know; you are not saved by how many times you go to church or read your Bible; you are not saved by how much you pray or tell other people about Jesus; you are not saved by any of those things, but you are saved by GRACE through Faith. So TRUST IN GOD! FOCUS ON GOD! Make HIM your goal!

So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective. Colossians 3:1-2