No Time for Weary

If we stop and look back over our friends and family within the church it is inevitable that you are going to have people come to mind that are no longer fighting the good fight. Somewhere along the way they sat down and decided not to go any further. We can give a million reasons and excuses for whatever happened to them. Dream up all kinds of what ifs and why not’s but the fact is that they made a decision to give up and lay down their cross. It always pains me to see someone go astray to accept the lie of the enemy; it breaks my heart for the kingdom’s sake. I have been tempted to give up. I have had times of hurt and loss that made me question why I am doing what I am doing. If I may, I would like to give you a tidbit of info that can stop these attacks of the enemy on our minds. First and foremost, time is your greatest friend and your greatest enemy. We must learn to occupy our time at all times with the things that are to benefit the kingdom. Idle time is the breeding ground for discouragement. Soon after you bite the hook of discouragement, depression begins to overtake you and cloud your mind with all the selfish reasoning that the enemy advertises all too well. You begin to think on things like, I am no good, I can’t do any better, no one else cares why should I, everyone is abandoning me, I am all alone, this will never happen here, they will never understand, I am not equipped for this, this is not what God showed me. The funny part is if you stand idle too long you will begin to attract like-minded leaches. They’ll come by to support you in your time of discouragement. Some will say things like, you tried your best no one else could’ve done it either, I don’t know why people expect it to be any different look at this place it’s not like we’re changing the world from here. It’s ok I don’t know how you lasted as long as you did.

I am all too aware that there are times of pain that come from living the Christian lifestyle and speaking the truths of God to the world. Worldly people are going to be worldly people so it should be no surprise to us when they do things that the world does. That’s why it throws us backwards when we see anointed soldiers drop everything and go after lie of the enemy. Too many have left the faith due to being weary in well doing. So what can we do about it?

1. Keep your walk with God in top notch shape. Always be read up and prayed up. Never let anything keep you from your time alone with God. This is the foundation upon which your spiritual strength stands. Weak prayer life or weak scripture life, then the spirit man becomes weak.

2. Time management. What else are you doing with your time? What things consume you the most outside of your time alone with God? Write them down on a sheet of paper and after you write them down number them from most to least important. You will be surprised as to what you allow to consume you. This is a good thing to do at least twice a year to keep you on track with the goals that you have hopefully set for yourself as a minister and leader in your home.

3. Having an accountability partner is a must. If you do not have one you are allowing a open door for the enemy to come in and destroy anything and everything. Without accountability in your life there is nothing to guard against your own ignorance and selfishness or just plain stubbornness for starters. We cannot even begin to consider ourselves leaders at all if there is no accountability.

4. Learn to be transparent. This has probably been one of my greatest battles. I am a very private person so learning balance in this area has been difficult for me but it has lifted many a burden and worry. Simply put never leave anything off the table and be willing to let people see your faults and hang-ups and understand by being this way it leaves no surprises for anyone involved. The best way to lead is by example. How do you do that if no one ever sees you make a mistake. So many are all about the image that people see and we must break that lie. Jesus did not say that everything would be perfect here. There’s nothing shameful in going thru a valley. It’s where we grow. Learn to allow people on the outside to see all of you not just the cleaned-up version. Some can handle it and some can’t but it stops the enemy from selling you the lie that if they all only knew who you really are, they’d…….

Please remember that Paul talked about being weary in well doing in Galatians 6:9 (Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.) So, seeing how we’ve been warned we should see it coming right. Just know that when you reach a place of constant “I” problems or selfishness and you begin to choose to separate yourself from the people of the church that this is your big red flag to seek some help from another Christian. Anyone who has served and any capacity at one time or another has dealt with growing weary. Know that you are not alone.

Now we must look at the rest of the scripture! …in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Here is where we must occupy our mind with thoughts of the finish line before us. Heaven is the goal!!!! It’s not my goal to leave this world as a perfect being, but to be perfect in heaven. You must remember God knows what he’s doing. He has set you up to succeed. Remember the part about He is for us? No matter how long you live you will always be in a constant state of rebuild. I like to think of it as a constant upgrade process. I used to spend a lot of time working on off road vehicles. I would find an old jeep and the start removing all of the old unnecessary things on it and immediately start changing the platform it stood on. It had to have the right footwear (wheels and tires). Who cared what the paint looked like that was window dressing for the boys who couldn’t go where I wanted to go.. You must have a solid engine and it must have an awesome cooling system because a lot of time can be spent doing some very slow crawling so not a lot of cool air was getting blown around most of the time. Once these were covered, you must make sure that it had the running gear to put all this to the ground. A sweet little T-4 and a good transfer with at least a 7 to 1 reduction in a very strong double under box and as long as the drive shaft held up its end of the bargain the dana 44 front end and dana 60 rear would do all they could to keep you buying tires and having the time of your life. You see most of what’s needed for you to succeed is under the hood or covered up by a body panel for its own protection. Most see dents and a mismatching or primer paint job. God sees a self-sufficient tank that he can move anywhere he needs and it will be able to take the pressures and forces of this world and where everyone else gets stuck. He has built you to powerfully pull through. The outer appearances don’t hold up in battle, they are the first to get messed up. It’s the reason the Bible tells us that faith is the substance of things hope for and the evidence of things not seen. We have to rely on what God’s putting under the hood and make sure we keep it maintained for optimum performance because at any time we may be called to crawl thru some nasty stuff and that’s not the time to find out your engines cooling system is insufficient.

We really don’t have time to stop to grow weary in well doing if we are doing what we should with what we have and keeping our eyes set on Jesus. You have been selected for this time and this page of history to do what God decided would be your story, your life’s mission. It’s time to show what you are made of and quit stopping just short of your true potential. Your ministry, your Christian walk is just that, it’s yours. It was not designed to rely on what anyone else is or is not doing. It supposed to be you and God walking it out. You are capable and you have been forged from the finest materials God ever designed. You have proven yourself to be an over comer and you will overcome again.

I just want to leave you with this thought. Paul wrote more of the New Testament than any other person and yet he still never claimed to know it all or ever think he had it all together.

Philippians 3:12-14 Not As though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.