Fear and Apprehension = Pure Exhaustion

I've been realizing more and more lately how important it is to be constantly feeding on the things of the Spirit. I find myself in conversations where my flesh is very pleased to continue in the direction it is naturally heading, but at the same time, I am seeing infinite opportunities to turn it toward my Lord and Savior. Coming away from those conversations leaves me thinking a lot, especially when I choose to let them go where they will.

I am seeing, though, that God is giving me so many chances to be a light for Him in a place of darkness. One friend in particular tends to almost beg for God to be brought into the conversation but won't do it herself because she's not confident in her relationship with Him. I understand exactly where she is coming from and have been in that place so many times before. It can be so hard to open our flesh up to the things God desires because sometimes they aren't anything like what our flesh wants to have.

Another friend of mine has been really instrumental in challenging me to find God every single day whether I want to or not, and I have seen how the fruit of that time in seeking Christ really does spread. I get so excited about the things that God shares with me during my time with Him that it excites me to share it - which is why it's so annoying when my flesh overrules and makes it so hard, almost painful, to spend that time with God. Maybe, in reality, it's a fear of how He's going to react to our coming back and asking for a new start. But I've come to learn that fear is a lack of faith, often a result of pure exhaustion and being overwhelmed by trying to do it all ourselves.

But God desires us to be in close relationship with Him all the time. He doesn't change His mind based on what we've done that day or the desires we have. He is all the same and desires the same from us. We are His, He is with us, and we are precious and loved by Him, all the time, no matter what (Isaiah 43:1-4).

So, I guess we're left with two choices. #1 - push through, work harder, see what we can do/figure out = pure exhaustion; or #2 - rely on God and see what He can do, even when it's hard or scary to lose our sense of control = joy and strength.

My encouragement for you is that you would be purposeful about finding time to spend with God. Push aside your fears or apprehensions about going back to Him or having to ignore the fleshly desires that are so much easier to please. And don't go it alone. Things can be really tough sometimes. I get that more than most of you would ever understand. But find someone who can be an encouragement to you, who is going through the same thing you are, and work together to find God in your situations. He loves you and wants you to be with Him every second of the day.

My Spirit is Sick

This morning the Lord was telling me His take on why I wasn’t feeling so up to par this week. It was one of those weeks where you just don’t feel like doing anything, nothing really gets you motivated, and (oh no, don’t say it!) you don’t even really care to spend time with God. I was definitely feeling down and I really didn’t have much of a good reason, but then God got my attention and shared this with me:
       My Spirit is sick and I had made it this way by filling my mind and heart with things not of God. That is why I felt such a longing for Him at the beginning of the week – my Spirit knew what it needed to get itself back to health. God equated it to when my physical body gets sick. The first day you’re sick, you know it – you feel way worse that day than most of the rest and you tend to “milk it” a lot more that first day out. Then, the next couple of days you start coming to accept that you are indeed sick and start sort of nursing yourself back to health, or dealing with it at least. You self-medicate or go to the doctor – the natural way of dealing with it. Then you just let your body rest and heal without asking too much of it.

The same goes for when your spirit is sick – the first day you feel miserable. You might be depressed, tired, crabby or down and things just seem like they’re not quite right. You may decide to just wallow in it, or you may decide to take action early. The second day you start to accept it, but here is where it can get quite dangerous. If you let it just keep going here, the sickness is just going to get worse and worse; but if you take action now you will get it under control.

So how do you take action? Spending time in the Word, praying, being in the presence of God (especially when you don’t feel like being there) is the best way for us to do our part in the natural. Then God joins us with His supernatural power (like His healing for our natural bodies) and He takes care of the rest and gets our spirit back to health and in shape to do His work.

I would urge you that if you are feeling this way, find time to spend with God and really let Him into your heart to heal the broken places. If you don’t think you can do this by yourself, find a close friend who is a strong Christian, a leader/pastor in your church, or email us and we’ll help you connect with someone or with us. Having another person helping you and encouraging you in your walk with God is fundamental to your success as a Christian. God loves you and He wants your spirit to be healthy so that you can share His love with everyone around you!