Do you find yourself constantly in a state of exhaustion? Do you dread facing the day ahead, or completing the tasks that lie waiting for you? Does your exhaustion come packaged with a lack of faith that things will ever change? If yes, then you may be in a deep state of weariness.
YOUR SEASON
Maybe you are in a season of motherhood that seems to only consist of endless cooking, cleaning, and laundry; not forgetting the constant battles between siblings that seem to start up as quickly and ferociously as some of our politicians in parliament. Perhaps your marriage has squeezed the life out of you and you feel like a trapped animal forced into a corner, as the world around you falls apart. What will happen if you lose your job? How will you pay the bills and take care of your family? There is so much uncertainty around us and no one can tell us how it is going to end.
FINDING SOLACE IN THE WRONG PLACES
We often tend to look for solace in the world, in the news and social media, because just maybe we might find some answers there that will give us just at least a hint of what lies ahead for us. What tends to happen is that before we know it, we have become addicted to the news or social media, constantly searching for answers but never really finding them. We spend more and more time on websites, because we cannot find the answers we are looking for, but somehow believe that the answers must be in there, we just haven’t looked in the right place. Before you know it, half a day has passed and you don’t know how it happened.
Maybe you seek distraction from your life, spending much of your time on TV or Netflix to help you forget what you are going through, and the next thing you know, you’ve finished an entire season of your favourite program binge-watching in 2 days. What will make you forget about your problems now? Are you scrambling to find another program to give you that temporary high that the previous program gave you? That high didn’t last very long, did it? What now? If any of this rings true for you, then you are one of many who are looking in the wrong place for answers and solace.
The weariness that you are feeling is a reflection of your inner turmoil. You believe a lie that any solace or answers are to be found outside of the Word of God. It is normal to grow tired of having to deal with life’s issues day in, day out, year after year. When we are constantly dealing with not only the day to day pressures of life, but also need to overcome major events such as illness, financial troubles, marital problems and so forth, it can easily bring us to a point of utter weariness.
So, what then is the solution?
FINDING TRUE SOLACE
We so quickly forget that the only place we can find true peace and joy is in Christ’s Word. Have a look at the following verses for comfort and wisdom.
“My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word.” Psalm 119:28
“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.” Matthew 11:28
If you can take away just one thing from this, it is that when you start to feel you are losing hope and are becoming weary, let this be a sign to you that you are looking for comfort and answers in the wrong places. Jesus tells us that He is the fountain of living water and nothing else can satisfy us as His Word can.
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. John 4:13-14
The solution is to take our troubles on a daily basis to God to connect with our Saviour, so that He can restore and prepare us for the day ahead. We are to keep our eyes on Him in the midst of the turmoil and not on the problem at hand. If we focus only on the problem it will become bigger than what it really is and we will start to believe that it is insurmountable. This is the quickest way to anxiety and depression and only leads you down a path that you do not want to go down. God sent many prophets to Israel to warn them to turn their faces back to Him and not sin anymore. The Israelites were so enveloped in their sin of idolatry and prideful behaviour that they did not want to turn their faces back to Him. They chose time and again to worship false idols and sacrifice their children to these idols so that they might find favour with their false gods.
Our citizenship is not of the earth but of Heaven, and we serve a loving God who has worked tirelessly from the moment the Fall occurred for us to return to Him. Why do we forever look elsewhere? What or who has promised us eternal life but God? So, if the answer is to be found in God, let us support each other in these strange and difficult times and not allow each other to grow weary, but to rejoice in the knowledge that our God and Saviour is the only one who can bring us true comfort and carry our burdens for us. Let me share with you my favourite verse in the Bible that has carried me personally in difficult times and brought me out of deep depths of despair.
“Say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear;your God will come, he will come with vengeance;with divine retribution he will come to save you.”
Isaiah 35:4
My prayer for you:
May God, the father of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, bring you out of your weariness and into a place of rest and allow you to remember that as Christ rules in our hearts, we as members of one body were called to peace.
コメント