3 Ways to Draw Close to God When You’re Weary and Worn
I’m feeling weary and burdened as we make the long walk to the end of the driveway to wait for the school bus. I know my soul longs to draw close to God. Sadly, setting aside the time feels like work, and work is what’s worn me thin.
Ann Voskamp’s words pass through my mind: “It’s never the things you carry that hurt you, but how you carry those things.”
Meanwhile, when I’m honest with myself and with God, there are times when it feels like I’m carrying an unbearably heavy load, and there’s no way this load could do anything other than crush me.
Truth to Help You Draw Close to God
Most of us know about heavy loads. We know how it feels to be weighed down by the brokenness of the world. This brokenness manifests itself in diagnoses, shattered relationships, betrayals, death, and other losses.
It’s not easy to stand in the face of our losses and declare that they won’t hurt us.
In the darkness, it feels almost trite to stand there and speak the words that are true: Bring your burdens to Jesus and he will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).
Bring your burdens to Jesus and he will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). #rest #restinJesus #encounteringGod #heavyburdens Click To TweetI’m mulling it over while little Bekah leans against me at the end of the driveway. She looks like a rainbow-hued glimmer of sheer joy in her tie-dyed T-shirt, and the sparkle in her eyes makes me smile.
As I look into her eyes, a new thought comes to mind: When I’m too weary and worn to draw close to God, the most important thing is to keep my heart soft.
I’m ashamed to admit it, but there are times when the heaviness of life’s burdens leads me to take offense.
I become angry at God for allowing a burden, and my heart turns away from him in an offended posture. These are the times when I say I’m too weary to draw near to God. Meanwhile, what I really mean is that I’m too offended to turn to him with a soft and open heart.
Don’t Take Offense
We lose the battle in our burdened seasons when we allow the burdens to lead to offended hearts.
The rest Jesus offers is physical, but it is also the soul rest that comes when we exchange offense for attitudes that honor him.
Do you want to draw near to God in the midst of a weary and burdened season?
Begin by examining your heart. Repent of any sense of offense. Then, take one of the following suggestions:
1. Draw close to God by giving thanks.
We’ve all heard about the power of gratitude, but don’t gloss over this truth because it’s familiar.
When you fall into a slump, gratitude holds the transforming power to lift your head. Draw near to God by finding even one gift for which you can thank him.
In her book The Prayer That Changes Everything, Stormie Omartian writes, “There’s so much to be grateful for, and praising God for giving you His Spirit is a great place to begin. Even if you don’t think you have much to be grateful for right now, know that you can always praise God for the Holy Spirit’s presence in your life!”
2. Affirm your source of hope.
I’m good at fixing things. I carry bandages in my purse and a sewing kit in my car. I’m the kind of woman who likes to swoop in and save the day. Chances are, you are too.
Due to my ability to save the day in my own strength, I tend to put my hope in my ability to fix hard situations. I hope in my own strength, and I tend to place my hope in the outcome of better circumstances.
Friend, I have a quiet sense you can relate. God is not calling us to put our hope in our own strength or even in improved circumstances. Instead, he calls us to put our hope in the fact that he is with us in the middle of the hard circumstances.
Draw near to God and acknowledge your hope in him while your life is still a mess. Ask for his help, and ask him to help carry you forward. Acknowledge your dependence upon him. These are prayers God answers.
3. Connect with God in a posture of trust.
I’ve noticed that when Jesus asks us to give him our burdens, he doesn’t always take the burdens away. More often, he softens our hearts to endure the struggles with hopeful, grateful, trusting hearts.
In reality, circumstances might not improve in this lifetime. It might get harder before it gets easier. It might get darker before anyone shows up and ushers me into wondrous light.
However, my hope isn’t in the expectation that the burden will go away; my hope is in the knowledge that the Maker of all things is right here with me. He invites me to draw near in trust, and when I draw near in humility, he draws near to me.
As I arise to complete the day’s next task, I realize Ann was right all along: It’s not the things we carry that hurt us; it’s our offended hearts when the things we carry begin to feel too heavy.
I walk into the day feeling weary and burdened, and I thank God that only in my weakness is his power made perfect. If it takes a heavy burden to perfect his power in my life, I will ask him to help me carry it with a grateful heart.
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