When You're Tired

“Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength.” — Isaiah 30:15

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Lord led me to this scripture, and I knew it was not only a message for me but also a message for the body of Christ. Over the next couple of months, Christ’s body and the world were forced to rest from normal activities, and everything changed in terms of how the world runs.

The lives we live are not supposed to be completely full, without margin. That’s not God’s design or desire for our lives. If we can begin to notice our own limits and when it’s time to shut it down, we will find confidence in those moments of rest. In Genesis, God created for six days and rested on the seventh. He established Sabbath rest.

One realization that came out of COVID is that there were lots of systems and processes that were unnecessary. Being required to do everything at home forced organizations to learn new ways to do their work. News stations learned how to remotely broadcast from the living rooms of anchors. Major corporations realized their buildings were not as critical to the bottom line as they thought, and the Church was thrust into the twenty-first-century, twenty-four-hour-live streaming reality.

The world quickly went into survival mode, but I wonder: Did we ever truly return to God and rest? Did we get quiet and gain His confidence? While we may never know the answers to those questions on a wide scale, we do have an opportunity to decide our answers to those questions in our own lives. What do you do when you’re tired? Do you stop immediately and rest, or do you try to push yourself to the point of absolute burnout? Does your body shut itself down after you’ve worked yourself to exhaustion, or are you more likely to stop before you get to that point?

Set some healthy boundary times to end the various activities throughout your day so you can comfortably transition to the next thing, and write these times in your planner or put them in your electronic calendar. This week, try to follow these predetermined times as closely as possible.

REFLECTION

In Isaiah 30:15, the word “saved” means “delivered” (or “deliverance”). While the circumstances surrounding this scripture and why the prophet Isaiah spoke this word to Israel are much different from our own today, carefully consider the words of this verse and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal how it may relate to your life.

PRAYER

Lord, I know that, upon resting and returning to You, I will experience deliverance from stress and other issues related to busyness. Help me, Holy Spirit, to get proper rest at night and follow the boundaries I establish throughout the day. In Jesus’s name, amen.