Our culture praises hustle.
They say that the harder you work, the higher your value.
Rest is for the weak and the lazy. There is always more work to be done, and if you aren’t doing it, then you are wasting time.
After all:
You have the same number of hours in a day that Beyoncé has.
No pain, no gain.
Good things happen to those who hustle.
What these pithy sayings imply is that the life of your dreams is within your grasp if you are willing to strive hard enough or hustle long enough.
But striving to achieve our dreams, to earn favor and standing, to fix the mess of our lives, is really just a vain attempt to control something that we never had control of in the first place.
Hustle culture promises control through striving.
And striving is working beyond our capacity and God-given limitations as a way to earn God’s (or man’s) favor and to ensure a certain outcome.
- I’m striving when I adopt a restrictive diet, denying my body what it wants and needs, in order to obtain a figure that better meets the societal standards of beauty.
- I’m striving when I fret about my children’s salvation and buy all the Christian books, listen to all the parenting podcasts, and attempt (and often fail) to do all the “right” discipleship things to ensure they will walk with Christ in the future.
- I’m striving when I’m working on an important project and neglect sleep, fellowship with believers, and time spent in the Word so that whatever it is I’m producing might meet my unrealistic standards of perfection.
- I’m striving when I try to fix my life through self-improvement strategies rather than regularly repenting, putting my sin to death, and receiving God’s forgiveness.
Striving is about trying to maintain control.
Striving is a form of slavery.
The Bible offers a better way.
Instead of striving, the Bible encourages perseverance.
The word often translated as “perseverance” in the Bible means steadfastness, constancy, and endurance. It implies cheerfulness and patience.
Persevering is working heartily as unto the Lord (Col.3:32) within our natural capacity and God-given limitations (Psalm 16:6). Perseverance is a faithful response to the favor of God that is already ours, fully trusting him with the outcome of our work.
Perseverance recognizes our limitations and rests in God’s perfect control over all of life.
Perseverance is cheerfully and patiently taking the next right step in faith without worrying about the outcome.
Although the Bible never gives these specific definitions, God has revealed the attitude we ought to embody regarding our work all throughout the Scriptures.
We see it in the creation of the Sabbath when God worked hard and then rested (Gen. 2:2) and commanded us to do the same (Exodus 20:10). We see it in the perseverance of the saints recorded in Hebrews 11 who endured by faith, even though they “did not see what was promised.” (Heb. 11:39). We see it at the cross when Christ declared once and for all: “It is finished.”
Striving is the opposite of resting in the finished work of Christ.
Persevering in faith is joyfully working out of the triumph of Christ’s finished work.
As we reflect on our schedules, our to-do lists, our work ethic, our child-rearing strategies, our relationships, our fears, hopes, and dreams, we must ask ourselves:
Am I striving to earn favor with God to obtain a certain desired outcome?
-OR-
Am I resting in the finished work of Christ, persevering in faith, and trusting God with the result?
By God’s grace, may our answer always be the latter.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2
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