Think of all the ways someone can be exhausted! Of course, there’s the physical. Maybe someone has just run in a marathon, and her body gives way at the finish line and collapses. Then, there’s the physical exhaustion caused by one who is low on sleep! Mental exhaustion is also a thing! Let’s not forget about spiritual exhaustion. This is when our faith is perhaps wavering…even if just a teeny, tiny bit. There’s always the extreme spiritual exhaustion when we question God, maybe even without realizing it.
When my son was a baby, he had terribly bad sleeping habits (caused by extreme gut problems). When he was a young baby (and our daughter was just 16 months ahead), my husband took us to an RV show in a big city close to where we live. We had only been there a few minutes when a dear lady proclaimed to me, “Wow, you look tired, you must have been here all day!” I have never forgotten that, and I wonder how terrible I must have looked! It was at this stage of life when I became both physically AND spiritually exhausted! I was never mad at God, but there were plenty of ‘middles of the night’ when I told God I could not keep going night after night with such terrible sleep. I questioned whether or not He knew how much I could handle. Of course He knew, but I thought to myself—does He *really* know because surely He knows I cannot handle any more; so He must be wrong, and I want REST!
Here’s the freeing thing that I had to learn in a practical sense (and quite honestly I am STILL learning because my sweet boy is still a not-so-great sleeper, ugh)—I say ‘practical sense’ because it’s information I have always known. It is something I have had to learn to apply at its core…Here is this freeing thing:
*I am correct when I think—I. DO. NOT. HAVE. STRENGTH. ON. MY. OWN! It’s the strength of God that I have to rest upon, or I will stress, stress, stress, etc! God is the One with an endless supply of strength!*
We briefly looked at Isaiah 40 in my last post. We saw how nobody is God’s equal! We have to rely on His all-wise plan as the Creator God. Let’s look a little bit more into the same chapter and see why we can be spiritually freed to take a breath when life’s road is a little too bumpy!
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.” Isaiah 40:28-29 (NKJV)
When I read those verses in my mind, I add a lot of exclamation points! Incredible, the Creator God did not just make us and then leave us alone. He gives strength when we are weak and have no lick of might! How in the world is that possible? This is what God graciously gives us! We see it in verse 28: God never gets weary or needs to sleep! He offers us a full supply of strength (see the end of verse 29 again, then re-read again as necessary)! We just have to believe this deep down in our hearts so that when trials strike, we don’t spin our wheels in needless disarray! We can rest, spiritually-speaking, because our strength is not of our own. It’s God’s strength lifting us up when we fall.
Can I get a hallelujiah!? =]
Rest easy,
Sharon
PS. Here’s a great song by CityAlight, and it goes right along with this post!