So, I wanted to post/create something here as it has been quite some time. I was recently reading in Romans and at the end of the 15th Chapter I couldn't help but notice that Paul was asking for prayer in coming to see the church and gathered believers in Rome so that he would be refreshed. And it occurred to me that Paul probably grew weary. He no doubt grew weary in the travels of his ministry and weary in dealing with the burdens of this world and the challenges and persecution he often faced.
It's easy to grow weary both being in flesh and looking at the world around us. My home state Tuesday voted to pass both a constitutional amendment protecting the "right" to abort one's baby and the use of recreational marijuana. There's people who would celebrate that who don't realize that it's not important what's right in one's own eyes. As a matter of fact, on more than one occasion in the book of Judges it says there was no king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes. How did it go for them when that was the case? Not so well. God is the author of life , not us. Not even the earth father that fertilized an egg or the woman carrying that child and having it develop in her womb. God is the One who puts that soul and that spirit in the embryo and God is the one who designs and forms that child in the womb. Deciding, for whatever the reason(s) that an unborn child should not live is playing God and no less than murdering one of His children in the womb. And, believe me, knowing this world and knowing the stories of some women who have had an abortion, including one I talked to who had repented and was still racked with guilt and fear years later, I don't come down hard on or lay that burden at the feet of all the women alone. They're exposed to so many lies and oft times are so vulnerable because of age, fear, lack of support around them, etc. But it is indedd the murder of a child of God all the same and it's certainly nothing that He finds good. While there are medicinal properties to marijuana, and while medicinal use was already allowed in the state, it certainly is not the only medicine out therethat is natural. Smoking it for enjoyment, recreational use, to get a "high" is certainly one's choice. But again, if you think that's something God wants His people and His children doing, you would be mistaken. What people don't realize, in part, is God will certainly give people, nations, states, the free will to make their own choices. But choose something that He doesn't approve of and watch some of those blessings and protections start to disappear around you.
So, it's easy to grow weary not only from physical exhaustion but also spiritual and mental exhaustion. But insteado of focusing on the weariness, let's focus on the remedy to that weariness, which is the hope and promises of God through Christ.
Galatians 6:2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
That's one way to not grow weary. Help one another in the body. If someone is down, lift them up. If someone needs assistance with a work for God, do so.
3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
4 But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.
5 For every man shall bear his own burden.
6 Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
This is what we need to focus on. If you want to live in the here and now and in the world and enjoy flesh things, and we all do from time to time and some of it is actually fine, you can do so. But everything in this world and in this flesh age, even the age itself, is going to pass away. So, if you want to get that temporary "high" from smoking a joing, more power to you. But just like all things ministering to the flesh, it's temporary. It doesn't last and so you need another one. Then you need another one. Then you need another one. Then pretty soon you're just chasing vanity because you think you're fulfilled but you never are.
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
If you sow works to the Spirt, that is to say the Holy Spirit and if you're doing well in at least trying to do that which pleases God and is a work in His name and for His name, you're going to be rewarded in due season. And the thing is, in the flesh we struggle so often with patience and wanting it now. That's why too it's God's timing and not ours and that's why you don't want to faint (grow weak inwardly and give up) or you won't see those rewards. But if you stick with it and put your faith and your trust in your Father, you'll reap the fruits of every good work you sowed and then some.
Hebrews 12:1Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Those sins can be the sins of others or our own sins that discourage us and make us weary.
Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
You know, if there is anyone who could have just "given up" because of weariness it probably could well have been Jesus Christ. I mean, look what He went through? Beaten, spat upon, mocked, and crucified! But, did it say that He went to that cross with dread or second thoughts? No, it said He did it with JOY, which is to say gladness. i MEAN, IF He had gotten discouraged and weary and faint and given up, where would you or I be today? But He didn't.
3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and
faint in your minds.
If you keep what Christ did for you and who He was as sinless and blameless and going to that cross for you, for me, when we certainly aren't, and that He took on your sentence, and mine, and did it with joy, what's so tough in this world that can be thrown at you? He died, resurrected, and is at the right hand of God. So don't be wearied
and faint.
Isaiah 40:28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
So, where do we go when we feel faint and weary? We go to the One who doesn't ever faint or get weak
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
Age doesn't so much matter because we're not talking about physical strength and energy here. We're talking spiritual, emotional, mental.
31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Again, WAIT upon the Lord. It's hard to do sometimes when in the flesh it seems to wax worse and worse in this world. But when you feel like you don't have the strength to go own without fainting, put your faith in Him and He will lift and carry you with HIS strength.
Jeremiah 31:23 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The Lord bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.
24 And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks.
25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.
This of course all occurs at the Second Advent of Jesus Christ and during the Millennium, and afterwards. This word sorrowful in the Hebrew means faint. It again means that if your soul is thirsty for Him and for truth and you ever become weary and faint due to the problems in this world and the problem people of this world, He sees that, He knows that, and He's going to give you more than enough to be strong and filled. And it won't be something temporary and fleshly of this world. It will be permanent and eternal.
There are many things in this world that can make a soul weary and faint. But your replenishment, your joy, and your strength is always found in working for Him, trusting in Him, obeying Him, loving Him, and being patient in due season to wait for Him.