“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28

Weariness of Heart
Do you ever feel weary? I don’t mean tired. Most of us feel tired at the end of the day. Sometimes that tiredness can even be tinged with the satisfaction of having accomplished something. 

But weariness is a different thing altogether. It isn’t resolved by a good night’s sleep, a few hours rest or even a holiday. Weariness is an awful, seeping tiredness of the heart, that saps all your energy and literally drains the life out of you. If it isn’t nipped in the bud quickly, it can be pervasive, eroding every part of your life.

It All Starts With a Thought 
If you’re battling weariness today, it will have begun with thoughts that you possibly don’t even remember now. Thoughts such as “I’m so tired”, “I’m fed up with doing this”, “nothing’s ever going to change.”   Proverbs 4:23 tell us “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”

How do you guard your heart?:  By being careful what you tell yourself. We all talk to ourselves. What do you say to yourself? I’m sure you know this already, but just to remind you – your heart “listens” to what your head tells it. If you keep telling yourself you feel defeated, discouraged, fed up and exhausted, your heart will start to believe you.

Keeping Our Eyes Fixed on Him
I like the way The Message translates Hebrews 12:1 “Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”

When my eyes aren’t on Jesus, they’ll be on something or someone else; some lesser thing that can’t satisfy my heart. It will just be a matter of time before I find myself becoming weary.

There’s Only One Who Satisfies   
God knows us; even better than we know ourselves. He knows there are times we get tired; even weary. But we don’t have to stay or languish, as Isaiah calls it, in that place of weariness. 

“For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.” Jeremiah 31:25

This morning while I was writing I had a glass of water on the table beside me. I wrote, looked up scriptures. Read a bit more. During that time, I stared feeling thirsty.  I went to the kitchen twice to make myself coffee. Suddenly, about two hours into my studying, I realised I was now really thirsty. My thirst hadn’t been satisfied by the coffee; what I’d needed had been right there beside me, all along -the glass of water I’d ignored. All I had needed to do was reach for it! 

A simplistic illustration maybe, but no less true because of that. It’s what the Lord our God promises for the weary of heart, and it takes an action on our part – as in Matthew 11:28 where Jesus says “Come to me all of you who are weary …”

Are you weary? He’s been there all along. The Only One who can satisfy and give rest to the weary. And, like the illustration, this takes a conscious action/s. 

1. Stop the negative talk; the comparisons, the complaints, the lack of faith statements; the negative words about yourself. This is how we “guard our hearts”. These destructive thoughts, if entertained and spoken, even just to yourself, make their slithery journey from your head into your hearts, and take up residence there.

2. Delight yourself in Him – invest your time in God! Daily seek out His presence, even when (especially when) you don’t feel like it. God will reciprocate. He’ll never “leave you hanging” or stand you up, if you are honestly seeking Him. 

He promises to give rest to the weary. To take our burdens. What an exchange! What a promise! What a God! 

Jill 💜

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