Winning is fun. (Hopefully you already know that.) The feeling at the final buzzer when your team has the most points. Crossing the finish line in a race you’ve spent months training for, adrenaline propelling you to a personal best time. You bench press more than ever before. You see a number on the scale you have been chasing for a long time. It feels good.
Though to reach that moment, there were lots of times when it didn’t feel good. Getting out of bed on cold, dark mornings. Grueling sessions that left you sweaty, nauseous, and sore. Games under a scorching sun and lopsided score when you were tempted to give up. That’s how it goes: you can’t have a mountaintop moment unless you first climb a mountain.
That requires discipline. Scripture says, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:11 ESV). The simple truth is that what we many times most need to do – what would truly be best for us – we just don’t want to do. Because it hurts. Because we’re already tired. Because doing something different requires energy we don’t feel like we have.
Do it anyway. Especially if you are a Christian.
Because when you are a Christian, it’s not just about what you personally can do – what you feel like doing. You are afflicted and burdened – but you are learning to rely on God (cf. 2 Cor. 1:8-9). Your strength comes “with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (Eph. 3:16). You toil and struggle, but it is with all the energy that God powerfully works within you (cf. Col. 1:29).
As you actively work with Him, you get stronger. The changes you make. The habits you break – and better ones you replace them with. The times you pray, even when you don’t want to. The times when you say something about Jesus, even though you’re nervous. When you drag your hurting and tired self to worship – because you know He is still worthy of your praise. None of those efforts are wasted.
Through the discipline you exercise, you will win – because of Jesus. “Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:12-14).