Do Not Grow Weary - April 19 2011

Blessings in our Lord my dear friends,

I have been focusing on the accounts of Jesus passion in the Gospels. It portrays Jesus as resolute to fulfill His mission. To do so would mean unspeakable suffering and weariness. You can really feel this when Jesus falls and can’t go on. Simon of Cyrene has to take His cross. At this point of Jesus’ mission is a weary walk towards fulfilling His Fathers call.

In 2 Timothy 4 we see Paul at the end of his life abandoned and weary, and yet we know he went to his death faithful to Christ, refusing to bow to Caesar. It’s so easy to start something when everyone is so excited. Everyone wants to pitch in, but as days go by people start to drop off. It’s not new anymore and people are tired. The result for those who are left can be discouragement.

I am in a weary season right now with 32 days of travel out of 90 days. How do we handle weariness? How do we stay the course? How do we fight discouragement? There are a number of things we can see in the examples of Jesus and Paul.

First we have to constantly renew our call from God as Jesus did. One of the places He did this was in the garden before His arrest. He wrestled with God in honest prayer and ultimately said “yes” to His Father and was strengthened by angels.

When we are weary and fall like Jesus, we must be willing to receive help from others. We must not refuse the “Simon’s” God sends us. We must bear one another’s burdens and help carry each other’s cross by dropping our pride and asking for help.

We must endure weariness and the cross for the joy set before us as Jesus did; it is the joy of doing the Father’s will. As Paul says in Galatians 6:9, “We must not grow weary and give up for in due time we shall receive a harvest.” I know this first hand because I spent 14 years laboring to see YL Capernaum conceived in Young Life before its growth exploded in 1999. There were plenty of times I was tempted to give up but God is faithful. We must lean on Him and do this in His strength or we will burn out.

Paul was not afraid to be vulnerable and ask for help. He says, “All abandoned me but the Lord defended me and stood by my side.” And for 2000 years we have benefitted from Paul’s writings because of his faithfulness. So friends as Paul said to Archippus in Colossians 4:17, “God has ordained you to your ministry. See that you complete it. I love you all and I am praying for you.”

All my love in Jesus.
Nick