Unburdened by Vance PitmanSample

What Is The Goal?

Our culture’s obsession of finding satisfaction through the accomplishment of goals and achievements doesn’t serve us well when it comes to living as a faithful follower of Jesus. In light of that obsession, have you ever wondered about the goals of the Christian life? We know our ultimate target is to live as faithful followers of Jesus, but what goals can we set and achieve to help us get there? Some people would immediately respond to that question with, “The goal of the Christian life is to live for God!”

With this mind-set, though, the goal of the Christian life can be summed up in one word: obedience. Meaning this: the more I live for God through obedience, the closer I get to hitting the target of being a good Christian. If this is your mind-set, you have a problem. Building your life around the goal of obeying God for the purpose of earning anything is a step back toward religion, not relationship. It’s just another burden—another weight around your neck.

In addition, living in total obedience to God is absolutely impossible in our own strength on this side of eternity. We can’t do it, and we know we can’t do it. Unfortunately, pursuing a goal we know we can’t achieve leads to guilt and condemnation. 

I promised I would guide you through the process of removing the burden of religion from your spiritual life and help you aim at the best possible target for a faithful follower of Jesus. Just as God transformed my life all those years ago, I pray that as we journey together this week, He’ll transform your life too—through discovering the freedom and simplicity of following Jesus.

The three relationships we looked at yesterday are the scaffolding for the process of removing the burden of religion. They provide the structure. But I want to connect a specific word to each of them to simplify terminology: abide, connect, and share. We’ll move more deeply into their significance for our life of freedom in the days remaining.

Let’s conclude by returning to the central question for today: What is the Christian life? The target is to faithfully follow Jesus, but how do we get there? The simple answer is wrapped up in our key word for tomorrow: abide.

What is the goal of your Christian life? What does your answer tell you about striving? Abiding?