There are so many things demanding our time and attention. Pressure comes from all sides – deadlines to meet, work to do, serving at church. It’s hard. We tend to overwork and consume ourselves with busyness. The strategies we use to cope, though, don’t add up to ‘staying power’ so much as overexertion. Our lives turn exhausted. But God has more for us than just careening from task to task.
The reason God calls us into personal, set-apart times with Him isn’t to add another task to the list. It’s to ground us in what gives us life. Private, close times with God give us the strength to see our daily work differently, and the lightness of spirit to view it all with more joy and less exhaustion. And in the process He becomes the one that shoulders up all those tasks. As our concentration and focus shifts to losing ourselves in adoration of the King, all our fussing and working for the kingdom can’t weigh us down. We learn to trust that God’s in control of it all. We leave more in His hands. We lose the physical strain that work holds over us. And the trials hit hard, sure, but they don’t kill us, or the joy that we’ve found and built on.
What Now?
If you’re feeling overworked at the moment, what are you turning to for relief? Coffee? Sugary stuff? Try giving it up for a day (we know the struggle). Every time you start craving it, use those feelings as a reminder to pray.
