Weary of Doing Good

Escapism, we all do it. 

Reality is harsh, often overwhelming the blessing of life with fatigue, pain, and fear (just to name a few). We feel the oppression of the world around us and the aching of our spirit inside of us, longing to be reborn into the promised future glory, our final liberation from the bonds of decay that entrap us. Romans speaks of this in chapter 8, verses 18-27, “all of creation groaning as in the pains of childbirth.”

I just had my first child, and let me tell you, those were not mild pains.

Do you feel the groanings? The ache in your spirit as you watch the events of the world unfold around you, made deeper with each passing suffering and injustice? 

We try to be obedient, doing good, as God asks of us in His Word (1 Peter 1:13-25), but the world seems to inhale all of our good, spitting us out again, empty and depleted, begging us for more, more, more.

We burn-out, we escape. We quit serving, quit striving, quit reaching out to people, or responding when they reach out to us, trying to shelter ourselves from the monster of NEED that surrounds us. 

Is the good that we are doing even touching the need, changing anything, helping anyone? 

Paul the Apostle understood this feeling, as did the church of Galatia. 

“Let us not become weary in doing good,” he wrote in his letter to them, “for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)

Paul reminded them of God’s promise, there will be a harvest! 

Don’t grow weary, for there will be an end, an end to the groaning, to the striving, to the suffering. This is not a hopeless race that we are running, but a race in which we already know the winner. And we are on His team!

The day that we joined God’s team, He promised that, through Christ, he would equip us for every good work that He would ask of us (Hebrews 13:21). We give up, not because the race is impossible, but because we are weary. We have forgotten the promises of God and attacked the race depending on our own fleeting will.

Do not give up, my sisters. You can do this. Reach out to God, He will give you what you need. Care for each other, lend a shoulder to your depleted sister, encourage her, correct her, forgive her. The race is hard, and it will ask a lot of us, together, our team:  our trust, our energy, even our very lives. But in the end, God’s team, our team, will win.