Ever Feel Tired of the Fight? 

I don’t write often on subjects like this, but I feel I need to write to those who may be struggling with the darkness around them as they attempt to walk with the Lord. We live in a time when many say these are the “Last Days” and I believe it more true now than ever before. We must be watchful lest we become discouraged in our souls to the point of quitting or running away from our calling in the Lord.  We need to continue to walk as the Lord has directed our souls in scripture.

There are times, like right now, when I am really tired of seeing all the evil that pervades the world.  I just want Jesus to either come back for whatever is left of the real church or for my natural life on this sorry planet to end so I can go be with the Lord. I do remember a time when America and Americans stood for truth and justice, even with all our flaws, and yet it seems that was a distant memory. America has never been perfect but at least we knew when we were messed up and when we weren’t. Today, I am afraid that any sense of real morality has become a minority concept for Americans unless you live in some small town where sanity still exists.

There are different kinds of tiredness, some of the body and some of the soul.  I feel tired in my soul. When you are tired in your body you know you need to eat something and then sleep, but what do you do when your soul is tired?  Your body, soul and spirit can get worn out from the struggle to walk with the Lord in victory because of all the insanity around you. It’s time to take a break from looking at what’s wrong and look to God in a fresh way.

For me, the book of Psalms is a good place to look to see how King David handled his discouragement because he had a lot to contend with. Consider that his own father and brother treated him with disdain and disrespect. David stayed faithful to God and his father with the sheep but then David got the opportunity to show what he is made of when he battles and kills Goliath, the giant that made Israel terrified.  For David’s great victory, King Saul tries to kill him because he is so good. Then there are the people David has following his leadership while running from the king.  He is now in his 20’s and 30’s and he is an outcast running for his life with people who are rejects themselves.

1 Samuel 22:2                                                                                                                                                                                               

Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Now there were about four hundred men with him.

You can imagine the conversations around the camp fire with the people following David. I’m sure it was anything but uplifting and David was leading these people for 14 years while on the run from Saul. To add to his dilemma, David did not know how long he was going to be on the run. After a few years David surely had to struggle with his own emotions and the calling on his life seemed anything but blessed. His life seemed to turn into a nightmare instead of his calling to be the king of Israel.  David’s calling and anointing by Samuel the prophet would have felt more like a bad dream than something from God. David’s own confession and perspective is a lot like mine today.

Psalms 120:6                                                                                                                                                                                                      

I am tired of living here among people who hate peace.

This statement in Psalms 120 says it all. When we live in the midst of unfulfilled expectations and disgruntled people it can wear you out emotionally. I expected after becoming born again during the Jesus Movement that God would use us to turn America and the world around for Jesus, yet in America right now there is so much corruption and lawlessness while the righteous seem to be punished for little to nothing. I can relate to prophets like Jeremiah who wrote about being so discouraged that Israel was worse off than before he started preaching.

I confess there are times lately, at my age of 71, when I see more that is going wrong than what is going right and that there seems to be no end in sight of horrible transformation. Even in the churches in this country, which should be the light of the world, there is selfish ambition rather than communities of love and transformation. Mind you, I know there are church bodies within the greater body of Christ that are rich and full of the presence of God but in my estimation there are far fewer than there should be. Even though Christ followers have read the scriptures for a long time, we are still in the infancy of following Jesus rather than mature believers who put the kingdom of God first.

Then I look at what Paul wrote the Galatian Christians who were struggling with their own problems.  Paul encourages them regarding how to respond to discouragement. He wrote that we should take ours and turn it around with God’s help. We are encouraged to not be intimidated by evil but rather to walk strongly in the vision God gave us in the beginning because we will reap at the right time.

Galatians 6:9                                                                                                                                                                                                   

So don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time. 

Paul says we should not get tired of doing good regardless of what’s happening around us because we are and should be living for God. We should have an attitude of trusting the Lord even in the darkness because reaping and sowing is still true even if it’s timing is not what we thought it would be.  The only way this is possible is if we look to the Lord for our strength and vision. He is the only one that can ultimately help us with our attitude and the discouragement of our heart. He is the one that can heal us from any discouragement that the world or the church can throw at us. It is the Lord who looks for those who will trust even in the darkness.

2 Chronicles 16:9                                                                                                                                                                                         

The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

So may the Holy Spirit give us a refreshing in our souls that equips us beyond our own strength so that we can overcome the darkness of the world and the shortsightedness of the church. May our souls be filled once again with the Holy Spirit, just as Paul challenged us to do.

Ephesians 5:18                                                                                                                                                                                           

 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled ( continually ) with the Spirit.

May our hands find the will of God to do that which pleases him.  May His grace empower us for the battle at hand and the expectation of miracles following our obedience.

Questions:

1) Are you discouraged by the darkness around you as I have been? Prayer is the tool of our deliverance and the means of connecting with our heavenly Father for refreshing.

2) Have you been “Filled Regularly” with the Holy Spirit to overcome discouragement? We need to ask daily to be filled in order to be overcomers.

May the Holy Spirit fill us to overflowing so that we might still be the light of the world.

Pastor Dale