STRENGTH FOR THE WEARY
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INTRO: This summer has worn me out and it is not even over yet! It seems every year after mission week is over I am just exhausted. Then just when I start to recover from that we go to camp and when that is over it takes a week to recover. After mission week ended and I was feeling very tired as many of us were I decided to see what God’s word said about what to do when you are exhausted.
INTRO: This summer has worn me out and it is not even over yet! It seems every year after mission week is over I am just exhausted. Then just when I start to recover from that we go to camp and when that is over it takes a week to recover. After mission week ended and I was feeling very tired as many of us were I decided to see what God’s word said about what to do when you are exhausted.
There were a couple of things that I found. (1. God’s word can help us no matter what situation we are in and not matter what we are feeling. It can bring encouragement and guidance when most everything else cannot. (it is amazing how just opening up God’s word and looking up what we are struggling with can lead us to. (2) God uses His word through His Spirit during challenging times to teach us great lessons. (3) God gives us strength when we are weak (which is what we are going to talk about today.
After mission week I was tired and so I looked up what scripture said about being weary. I came across a very well known passage in Isaiah. Even though it is very well known, I have not preached on it, that I can remember. After studying it a bit I realized that some scriptures are popular for a reason. Many times the reason is that a particular scripture relates to so many people in so many situations.
BEING TIRED AND WEARY IS A COMMON LIFE EXPERIENCE.
BEING TIRED AND WEARY IS A COMMON LIFE EXPERIENCE.
Being tired,and weary and felling worn out physically, MENTALLY, emotionally and/or spiritually can happen for many reasons.
PHYSICAL WORK: It may happen because of working hard mentally or physically. Often tiredness comes from giving so much to our work. (Depending on your job and the time of the year some weeks may be more tiring than others, i.e. mission week, camp and the heat, or the end of the fiscal year.)
EMOTIONAL WORK: We can become tired when we face life change, loss or difficulty that pushes our emotions further than usual. (i.e. when relationships are strained, or we have experienced loss or difficulty with where we are in life.)
Of course this is especially true when we are going through change or loss.
MENTAL WORK: We can be worn out even though we have not done hard labor. Mental work is very difficult. (i.e. Mom’s have such a challenge in raising children because of the teaching, correcting, listening, reasoning with and disciplining…dealing with kids and…can be tiring.)
Remember that God will not forget your work of love as parents or mothers.
SPIRITUAL WORK: As strange as it may seem even spiritual work can cause us to be tired. We can be tired because we are fighting a spiritual battle against sin, discouragement and temptation and winning. We can be tired because we are trying to grow spiritually and we are trying to grow.
We can also put too much on ourselves spiritually as the Pharisees did to the people. Jesus told them that they heaped heavy burdens on people (with all of their extra rules they treated as commands).
When we are weary we need to remember Jesus’ invitation.
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
HUMANS ARE BAD ABOUT OVER DOING IT!
God gave us an example himself of resting even though He did not need to so that we would learn and rest from our labors. (i.e. He knew we would be in danger of over doing it)
We can experience exhaustion from working too much, worrying to much, carrying so much for others and ourselves on our shoulders, (We often do not realize that we need boundaries) trying to handle to many things @ once, not getting enough rest, letting others pile to much on us, facing emotionally difficult situations, Focusing on the difficulty rather than the blessings…etc.
“Come away with me by yourselves to a quiet place and rest.”
T
BEING WORN OUT CAN BE DANGEROUS! SO WHEN YOU ARE WEARY...
The difficulty of trying to function in weariness is that it is hard to go forward when you are worn out in one of these ways. We start working slower and slower and it seems to take more effort to get just a little bit done.
The danger of allowing ourselves to being worn to thin is that Satan attacks when we are tired and weak. (i.e. Jesus is a great example of this…after He fasted in the wilderness Satan came to tempt Him…when He was tired and hungry.
So…how can we handle being tired and weary? There are a lot of things that could be said but I want to just give you a simple lesson that can help us in many situations.
This lesson sounds almost too simple but it is sometimes the most simple lessons that we have the hardest times getting.
When you are tired and worn...
Turn to God Who Never Grows Weary
Turn to God Who Never Grows Weary
AND THE NATURE OF GOD
There is a lot that could be said of the context of but even inside that context what is incredible about this chapter is that it declares some truths about God’s nature that do not depend on the circumstances surrounding it. AWESOME STATEMENT OF WHO GOD IS! For example:
To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
GOD is ALL POWERFUL, ETERNAL and INCOMPARABLE! - , .
GOD WHOSE STRENGTH NEVER ENDS GIVES STRENGTH -
He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;
He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move. Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;
When we are weary we need to call on God for strength.
One thing that this verse should teach us is that if God tells us He gives strength we should call on Him to help us when we are weary. This is said more plainly in the very next chapter.
fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
This is said more plainly in the very next chapter.
When we are weak God’s strength can show.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
God can turn our weakness and weariness into strength and usefulness but we have to trust.
TURNING TO GOD FOR STRENGTH WILL ONLY HAPPEN IF WE PUT OUR HOPE IN HIM.
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Here is the hard part. We have to believe that God can strengthen us and have the hope that He will work if we call. But hoping implies that we may have to wait for Him also. We have no opportunity to hope if we do not have to wait.
So when you are tired and weary, call on the Lord in hope and wait for His help. What He can do is greater than anything you can do even in your strongest moments.
Hope in God’s Promise of Eternal Life
Hope in God’s Promise of Eternal Life
ONE DAY WE WILL NEVER EXPERIENCE WEARINESS AGAIN.
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Spiritually we are being renewed everyday and getting closer to our goal.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
One day we will forget all of our afflictions, temptations, weariness and struggles.
WHEN WE ARE TIRED AND WEARY WE CAN FIX OUR EYES ON OUR UNSEEN HOPE RATHER THAN OUR PHYSICAL WEARINESS.