Christianity Archives - Page 27 of 39

Burnout

Feeling burnout with the gospel?

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”
Galatians 6:9

Have you become weary with the commands of God? Are you worn out with everything He asks of His servants? Do you feel tired of going to church week after week after week. If you are, do not worry, it is normal, It is going to happen. The weight of the law begins to take its toll on your mind.

You don’t bear the gospel the way the weak emotional liberals bear it, or the way the radical dogmatic conservatives bear it. You bear it in truth, trying to examine the law with your own mind and make your own decisions about what it says and what it means. For this reason many people degenerate into emotional liberalism or dogmatic conservatism because it is so difficult to think for yourself and to decide about faith for yourself. To continue trying to “work out your own salvation” (Phil 2:12) will eventually cause you to burnout.

Burnout isn’t a problem, it’s part of the process of growth.

You aren’t having your spiritual growth handed to you, instead you are working for it. You aren’t being spoon fed the gospel like a fat baby, you are digging into it using your rational mind, and it is difficult. The work is overbearing. The effort is titanic. Yet you must do it.

To degenerate into emotionalistic liberalism is not the way of men.

To degenerate into dogmatic conservatism is not the way of men.

Both of these doctrines minimize the use of the rational mind. One points to your emotions to justify what you think, the other looks to tradition to justify actions that may or may not be Biblical. Use your own mind like a man. Overcome burnout with dignity. Burnout will pass away with time and give way to new growth. It is like a forest that catches fire – it burns, then it grows back on the rick soil made from the ashes of the past.

Mantra

This weariness is only for a short time.

Application

Unfortunately, overcoming the burnout seems to be one of those situations that requires you to just wait out the sorrow; the same applies to depression. That doesn’t mean you stand around doing nothing – you have to constantly add new knowledge, skills and strength every day. When you add new knowledge and wait out the siege of the burnout, you can overcome and move on. And when the burnout comes back again, repeat the process. Your goal is to endure the temporary state of being burned out and shorten that period of time by adding new knowledge.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

Watch this video Series on Burnout.

Obedience

“Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.”
Romans 1:5

“If you love me, keep my commands.”
John 14:15

How you emotionally feel about any of the commands of God is irrelevant. You may not agree with them. You may not want to do them, or you may even hate them at times. However, none of your thoughts matter. The only thing that matters is whether or not you obey through action. All that matters is whether or not you do what you know you must do.

The discipline to follow through with the commands of God is key. The ability to do what God says when we do not want to is a fundamental principle of Spartan Christianity.

Saving yourself for marriage is not fun.

No one who has undertaken that goal has enjoyed it. It is not meant to be enjoyed, that command exists for a purpose. Avoiding drugs and alcohol is not fun. These mind altering chemicals seem like they would be medicine to treat the misery of life. Alcohol could take you away from the pain, drugs could give you the best high of your life, but we cannot use them because we would be unable to be vigilant of the enemy. The command of sobriety is difficult. Few who keep that command enjoy it.

Obedience is a verb.

No one cares how you feel about it. As a man, you aren’t called to feel anything, you are only expected to act. You are only required to take action. You are not required to feel happy about it. Many of the commands are heavy and difficult, and feeling happy about them is something that will never happen. What you can guarantee is that day after day after day you will be grinding away at the discipline of obedience through action.

Mantra

Feeling is irrelevant, only obedience matters.

Application

Simple, do what God commands without getting caught up in how you feel about it. Sideline those emotions. Shut down those thoughts. Put ‘feelings’ in the trash can and focus solely on the action of obedience. You can feel any way you want, what matters is your obedience.

Conduct Yourselves like Men.

Temptation

He who is not tempted is of no value to the devil.

This is what I think about when people brag that temptation is seemingly non-existent in their lives. In the first place, the type of person who talks about their lack of temptation is obviously not intelligent enough to be of much use to the enemy. Not being tempted is nothing to brag about. Men think they are showcasing their “natural goodness” by way of not being tempted, but the opposite is true. The devil has no need of such weak, egotistical individuals. He already owns them.

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience”.
James 1:2-3

Hypothetically, Satan has a hit-list, a hierarchy of importance on which he ranks the most valuable players in the Church and plots to destroy them. If you aren’t tempted, you aren’t on the list, if you aren’t tempted, you should be worried.

If you are tempted, it is your job to destroy that temptation.

You can redirect the temptational energy, fight the temptation with willpower, or run from the temptation. Jesus was strong enough to crush temptation face to face using scripture. Are you strong enough to do that?

If you are weaker, or are worn down from temptations already, you will need to use the escape method to remove yourself from the presence of the temptations. Use the redirect method when the temptation is so strong that it causes huge surges of energy in your system. Take that energy and turn your focus onto something productive. Build. Create. Work.

Be aware of your weaknesses. The devil and his demons are cowardly, they will never hit you where you are strongest – they will always look for the chink in the armor. Any little crevice they can worm their way into in order to destroy you. Be aware of your weaknesses, and what sins you are inclined to commit based on your personality. Awareness is key in all aspects of dealing with temptation. Be aware of yourself. Be aware of the enemy, and use temptation to strengthen yourself for the future.

Temptation is the stress that produces growth of the mind, if you allow yourself to be trained by it. The willpower muscle must be used in order for it to grow. Temptation will either crush a man or make him more powerful, and you have to decide today which one it is going to be.

Mantra

I crush the temptation before me at all times.

Application

Awareness is always the first step in solving any problem. Becoming aware of the temptation is key, then you can analyze how the temptation is attacking you and how you can most easily destroy it. Or you can decide that it is too powerful for you and you can run away.

Make no mistake, the way of escape is a useful tool, but it requires you to have humility and accept that you are not strong enough to overcome temptation and must therefore flee from it. So when you are tempted, look in the immediate environment, there is a way of escape there somewhere.

Stockpile the mind with scripture. The Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit, making it both useful for defensive measures and offensive maneuvers. This was the tactic used by Christ when He was tempted in the wilderness, and undoubtedly the tactic He used all the other times He was tempted which are not recorded.

Use temptation for growth.

Every time you resist temptations, you increase your experience in dealing with temptation, making it more likely that you will be able to resist temptation in the future as long as you don’t get comfortable and lazy.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

Anxiety

This is the Spartan way: to work to improve our state, even if there is no hope for a cure.

“Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad.”
Proverbs 12:25

There are many reasons for anxiety to corrupt the mind of man. Biochemical reasons in the brain, external reasons at the workplace, internal reasons because of personality or whatever it may be. I won’t tell you that anxiety is curable, but that is never an excuse for us to avoid making an attempt to improve.

This is the Spartan way: to work to improve our state, even if there is no hope for a cure.

Negative anxiety can be from chemical imbalances or some other anxiety inducing source and has negative effects on our minds. It cripples us and slows us down, preventing our best work. It makes us live in constant fear of death, and in fear of the Judgement Day; any Christian who says we should not fear Judgement Day is ignorant of the standard by which we will be judged. It is a weakness, a chink in the armor of the mind.

Positive anxiety is a force that can drive us on. We are anxious about our death, therefore we do not waste any of our time. We are anxious about money, therefore we work harder and spend less time in vegetative-state laziness.

The difference between positive and negative anxiety is the result it pushes us to produce.

We must change our mind about anxiety and use it as a tool to improve rather than letting it beat us down. Anxiety can be channeled into constructive pursuits just like our anger if we are willing to practice controlling it and make it work for us.

Mantra

Anxiety is fuel and power.

Application

The difference between negative and positive anxiety is extremely small, so it can be difficult to tell which one you are being driven by without examining the results you produce. When you feel the physiological effects of anxiety (Increased heart rate, increased breathing, “feeling” in your gut from reduced blood flow) become conscious of yourself, notice the feelings with your conscious mind, and smile. Smile because you found the energy source, now all you have to do is bend it to your will.

Shift your thoughts to constructive pursuits. The mind will try to resist, it wants you to go into fight-or-flight mode because thinking is too difficult, but you need to harness it and make it obey your voice. Turn your mind to the positive, and start taking action. A great cure for any anxiety is action, especially if that action is aimed towards completing the task/job that is causing the anxiety. The majority of your fear lives in the few moments before taking action.

If your anxiety is the fear of death and judgement day, use that anxiety to drive your decision to do what is right.

Motives are irrelevant, action is what matters.

Conduct yourselves like Man.

Men Do Not Need Comfort

KEY: No one who sinks hours of his life into rest and comfort feels rested or comforted. When was the last time you felt rested or comforted by a Netflix binge?

Comfort is the enemy of progress.

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28

Comfort tells you that where you currently are is “good enough”.

Only the weak use the phrase “good enough”. Comfort is deception. Comfort is the weakness of Man telling him that he has no need to work. We should not seek comfort, for it provides no growth of character. It provides no increase to the strength of the mind, it only breaks man down, weakening him and his foundation.

We typically seek comfort after a long day as a respite from what we think is the brutality of the world. Are we as men too weak to face up to the day? Are we children, that we should be driven about by emotion? Or are we Men who are able to bear the whole world on our shoulders?

Comfort is for the weak, do not chase after it. Not only is comfort for the weak, but it is an illusion.

KEY: No one who sinks hours of his life into rest and comfort feels rested or comforted.

When was the last time you felt rested or comforted by a Netflix binge? Does watching football for six hours on Saturday make you feel better in the long run? Or are these just temporary fixes to the immediate problems in your life. You come out of these “comforts” feeling worse than before, groggy, and like you wasted a chunk of your life. This comfort seeking mechanism is a disgrace to mankind.

Learn to make your work the thing that comforts you. The Spartan Christian needs no rest.

Mantra

My work is my comfort.

Application

Get a productive hobby. This is the best way to combine genuine rest with the type of productivity that actually improves your life instead of wasting it. Get a musical instrument and learn to play it. Buy some tools and build furniture. Get some weights and train your mind and body simultaneously.

Physical training is one of the best options you have. It provides you a break from your work while also giving you the benefits of a sharper mind and fitter physical body. There are ways to rest and recover without going into a vegetative state. Find those ways and make them happen.

Conduct yourselves like Men.

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