No Wonder You're Tired!

I’m tired of hearing people complain that they're tired?

It's our own fault some of us are tired. We stay up too late, exercise too little, eat too much, try to do too many things. We replace amazing grace with a blazing pace and then wonder why we're exhausted.

Some weariness, though, is par for the course. Considering how the Bible describes the life of a Christ-follower, it's no wonder you're tired.

You're running a race. It takes the discipline of an athlete to follow Christ. "Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us" (Hebrews 12:1). Only when we die can we say we have "finished the race" (2 Timothy 4:7).

You're working in a harvest field. Harvesting is dirty, sweaty work — but rewarding. The task is difficult but God's strength is sufficient. The apostle Paul said, "To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me" (Colossians 1:29).

You're facing an enemy. "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). The world isn't a playground; it's a battleground filled with temptation and hardship.

You're fighting a battle. Many of us read the Psalms to find rest, comfort, and inspiring words of worship. But do you realize that the majority of the Psalms mention opponents of the people of God? These adversaries are identified variously as enemies, foes, oppressors, mockers, the wicked, the arrogant, the deceitful, the violent, and those who serve false gods or conspire against the Lord. By my unofficial count, I discovered a reference to some sort of spiritual opposition in 115 of the 150 Psalms! Another way to say it? At least three-fourths of the Psalms deal with some level of spiritual warfare.

"This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. . . . You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet" (Ephesians 6:12, 13, The Message).

You live in a dying world. Of course you're tired! You live in a universe that is "groaning as in the pains of childbirth," where you "face death all day long" (Romans 8:22, 36). But as this weary world winds toward its end, Jesus extends the open invitation, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). Realistically he says, "In this world you will have trouble," but optimistically he adds, "Take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).

In Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home (HarperCollins, 1992), Richard Foster remembers a popular advertisement for NesTea "in which different people, sweltering from the summer sun, would fall into a swimming pool with a thirst-quenching sense of 'ahhh!' on their faces."

This illustrates what Foster calls the "Prayer of Relinquishment" — a letting go, a refreshing release. "Relinquishment," he says, "takes us into rugged terrain. The climb is steep, the rocks are sharp, and the trail passes by precarious ridges. From every human viewpoint at times it looks like we have fallen over the precipice to our death. But we know better. We know that we are only falling into the arms of Jesus fully satisfied, fully at rest."