To be weary is not necessarily referring to being tired. It is good to be tired at the end of a hard day’s work and the accomplishment of goals—that is a physical thing. The weariness I am talking about is one not looking for sleep, or a holiday, but the rest you are looking for is in the heart, the type that lies by green pastures and still waters.
Tired of Everything
In Hebrew, the word translated to weariness means to wear you down and make you old before your time. The Greek word for weariness refers to becoming loosened; untied; to drift aimlessly; to drift in your own emotions.
This concept of drifting as related to weariness is like a boat that becomes untied and drifts away from safety. We see it in our lives as weariness leads to unbelief, or wrong beliefs and we break free from the promises of God and start to drift away from your path.
When did I start being tired?
Weariness begins in the mind, the awareness that “I am tired” does not necessarily refer to physical tiredness. In the head: there is a constant battlefield, the mind has to constantly battle the onslaught of thoughts, life, people, circumstances, events – all of them impact what is going on in the head. It never stops. Add to that, all the news feeds and notifications we have coming through to us nowadays! Ever just felt tired of your thinking? My mind is always working against this weariness of the soul, continually taking truth as revealed to me in scripture and replacing the lies of defeat, discouragement, despair, doubt, depression etc. that have settled into my thinking processes.
But when the weariness drops to the heart, then I am in real trouble.
Then, that weariness describes the state of my heart. When my heart is weary, this leads me to surrender my passion, my zeal, my willingness to stand up and fight. This is how I would describe this heart weariness, we:
- Know that we love God, want to serve Him, it is just that…
- Our spirit is tired of persevering…
- It is an effort to have faith, to believe no matter what. It is just too much, we are exhausted…
- We want to push the pause button on the complexity of life and ask for a new capacity to handle it.
When the weariness drops from the mind to the heart we are ready to give in, to surrender to our circumstances, we lose our passion for Christ. Which is why Proverbs 4:23 warns us to:
“Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance, for out of it flow the springs of life.”
From the heart flows everything, it is the source of our passion for life, the abundance of life. Jesus came to give us this life (John 10:10) and one of the greatest dangers to our heart and passion for life is weariness.
In Hebrews 12:3 the believers are warned to “Consider Him…so you will not grow weary and loose heart.” In Galatians 6:9 Paul warns believers “Let us not become weary of doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Jesus knew that the saints would get weary, soul weary.
Which is why in Matt 11:25-30 he describes a remedy:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Weariness of the mind and then the heart is a reality for believers, but when it sits in the heart over a period of time, it is really dangerous. Jesus is the only way to address this weariness in us, we are to “come to” Him. When last did you think to take your weariness to the Lord? Has your weariness dropped from your mind to your heart? Have you been tolerating weariness in your soul and not seeking out Jesus’s remedy?
Be sure to come back next week for “How to Deal with Weariness.”
Thank You Father that You understand and know us so well and that You expect us to get weary here on earth. Thank you Jesus, that you have already made provision for our rest, and that we can come to you with our need for rest for our souls. Help me to recognise what is normal day to day activity of my mind, and what is weariness that affects my heart and my outlook on life. Restore my passion Lord, restore my spiritual energy. You are the One who watches over our souls, I can trust in You to build me up and restore me once again. Thank You.
The Journey not the Destination
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