Looking to Jesus in Your Exhaustion

This episode contains portions from the following programs:

"Grace for Tired, Discouraged Hearts"

"Come Away and Rest, Day 2"

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Dannah Gresh: Let’s make a little list together, shall we? What things might lead a woman to feel exhausted? 

• Maybe getting less than the recommended 7–9 hours of sleep? (I've certainly been there!)
• What about waking up all night long with a newborn?
• Chasing toddlers endlessly?
• Caring for an aging parent?
• Enduring a chronic illness?
• Monthly hormonal fluctuations?
• Skipping meals because there’s just not time?
• Giving in to anxiety about your circumstances or maybe your child’s circumstances?

We could do this all day, but what would you check off on that list? What would you add? I’ll tell you more about my answer to those questions later on today, because my friend, you are not alone in your exhaustion. Not only have you got me and Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth in your corner whispering, “I get you! I’ve been there!” You’ve also got a gracious Savior who sees you, loves you, and desires to be your strength. 

I’m your host, Dannah Gresh. You’re listening to Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

If you haven’t guessed already, today is about looking to Jesus in your exhaustion. If you’re not exhausted right now, don’t go away. You’re going to want to store up encouragement for later, because weariness is something we all experience. And if you are exhausted, if you’re tuning in today hanging on by that proverbial thread, thinking, I’m not sure I can do another day, then my prayer is that you’ll leave with renewed courage in your heart. You’re not alone, and there is hope for you in Jesus.

That’s what Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth discovered awhile back as she waded through an unexpected season of weariness. She’d just completed a huge project and was more depleted physically and emotionally than she realized. Here she is to tell you more.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: I found myself within the space of a few days having a couple of what I would consider fairly major meltdowns. In one case, I got a couple hours into a studio session—not a teaching session like this, but where we do some aspects of recording—and I couldn't put a sentence together and had to leave the session and go home and go to bed. I couldn't pull it off, and had to say I can't do this.

A couple of days later, I went to church. I was sitting there on the second row, and as I walked toward the church and toward my seat, a couple people asked how things were going. I found myself, with every person I was talking to, I was breaking into tears and crying. It surprised me. I found that I didn’t have the capacity to carry on normal conversations, and sat down at my seat.

During the worship time, I found that I was having a hard time just breathing and couldn't stop crying. I finally had to leave the service. I went out to my car—I had ridden with some other people that day and couldn't just leave—so I sat out in my car and sobbed uncontrollably for probably fifteen or more minutes. It had been a long time since I had cried that hard. I thought, What is wrong with me? It was unusual. I wouldn’t have said I was feeling depressed, but there was a depletion. There was a weariness, a heaviness.

I want to assure you, most days are not like that for me. Probably most days aren’t like that for you. But we need help for our tired, hungry, thirsty, and needy souls at times when we just don't have the reserves for what it takes to press on. As I was preparing for this recording session, I was headed a whole different direction. I just kept thinking about people that I had been around recently, myself included, who were having meltdowns. I've been thinking what in the Word of God would minister grace and encouragement, and the Lord took my mind to Psalm 34.

What a wonderful passage this is. It speaks so beautifully to tired, troubled, discouraged hearts. The title of the psalm says it's a Psalm of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.

If we could give a title to this psalm, I might call it "ABCs for Handling a Meltdown." The reason I say ABCs is that this psalm is an acrostic. With a couple of exceptions, each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So here we have ABCs for handling meltdowns. 

I will bless the LORD at all times; 
   his praise shall continually be in my mouth. 
My soul makes its boast in the LORD; 
   let the humble hear and be glad. 
Oh, magnify the LORD with me, 
   and let us exalt his name together!

I sought the LORD, and he answered me 
   and delivered me from all my fears. 
Those who look to him are radiant, 
   and their faces shall never be ashamed. 
This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him 
   and saved him out of all his troubles. 
The angel of the LORD encamps 
   around those who fear him, and delivers them. 

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! 
   Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! 
Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, 
   for those who fear him have no lack! 
The young lions suffer want and hunger; 
   but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. 

Come, O children, listen to me; 
   I will teach you the fear of the LORD. 
What man is there who desires life 
   and loves many days, that he may see good? 
Keep your tongue from evil 
   and your lips from speaking deceit. 
Turn away from evil and do good; 
   seek peace and pursue it. 

The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous 
   and his ears toward their cry. 
The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, 
   to cut off the memory of them from the earth. 
When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears 
   and delivers them out of all their troubles. 
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted 
   and saves the crushed in spirit. 

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, 
   but the LORD delivers him out of them all. 
He keeps all his bones; 
   not one of them is broken. 
Affliction will slay the wicked, 
   and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. 
The LORD redeems the life of his servants; 
   none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. (vv. 1–22)

Now in so many wonderful ways, this familiar psalm gives us perspective. But it is especially meaningful when you understand the context that David was in and the circumstances he was facing when he wrote it. It was written at what was probably the lowest point of his life thus far.

You think he was a guy who was just having a great life. But the fact that it refers so often to afflictions, troubles, and fears gives you a hint that he was in a difficult circumstance when he said I will bless the Lord at all times.

He gives a lot of insights about what to do when you're facing a meltdown, and prescriptions that I think can help lift our hearts and our spirits in low times. But today I want to look at the very last phrase of the psalm. We're going to start at the end. It's that last phrase at the end of verse 22, “None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.”

Now the fact is, every person on the planet is guilty. We're guilty of sin against the God of the universe. We have broken His law. We are all law breakers. We are all sinners. We are all separated from God. We are all under the righteous wrath of God, and every person on this planet deserves to be punished and to perish. That's the fact.

But according to this verse, there are some who will be spared condemnation. It's only one group of people. Who are those who will not be condemned? Those who take refuge in Him. 

So where do we run to find refuge from condemnation, the condemnation we deserve for our sins? There is only one place to run—to Him, to Christ. Christ is our refuge. Christ is our protection from the wrath of God. He is the one who can preserve us. The only one who can preserve us from the consequences of our guilt.

That's why the apostle Paul could say to the Romans, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:1). He says at the end of that chapter,

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. (8:33–34)

None of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned. Christ died for us. He was raised for us. He intercedes for us in heaven.

So what does all that have to do with meltdowns? Well, the starting place for dealing with every issue in life the starting place is to look to Christ, to flee to Him. We need daily, moment by moment, to preach the gospel to ourselves. Even in the time that I just described to you that I was going through some practical physical things I needed, I didn't realize how tired I was. But I tell you what I need supremely was a fresh look at Christ, a fresh look at the gospel.

That last phrase of Psalm 34 puts everything in perspective. "None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned." You get that part solved, and you can go through the rest of your life holding your head high. You can face what life throws at you because you have fled to Christ for refuge, and you know there is no condemnation. Life's biggest issue is settled.

Dannah: What good news from Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. If you’re in meltdown mode today, would you open your Bible to Psalm 34 and rest there, even for just five minutes? The words of Scripture really do revive us.

That’s what Carrie Gaul discovered in a season of severe exhaustion, burnout, and spiritual wrestling. 

Carrie Gaul: Every area of my life seemed overshadowed in that season with a dark cloud of doubt and fear and confusion.

Almost daily I would wake up to a crushing fear that I had miserably disappointed my God; that I had lost favor with Him somehow; that I could never be the woman that He wanted me to be; that the ugly, shameful, self-absorbed, sinfulness that I knew existed in my own heart and that I so despised had somehow caused me to become distanced from my Savior.

Dannah: At the time she shared this with us, Carrie Gaul was working for Revive Our Hearts in correspondence. Today, she enjoys helping women experience more of Jesus’ presence, peace, and healing power as a lay counselor—mainly because she’s experienced it herself. Carrie and her husband, Dennis, have been married for over forty years, have two married children, and love being “Grammy and Papa” to two grandsons.

Here she is to tell us how looking to Jesus brought healing in a pretty desperate season.

Carrie: Physically, I was a mess. I would sit in front of a blank computer screen for hours on end and produce one sentence. And that's not a good thing when your job includes the fact that you have to produce and write letters to people and respond to them.

Relationally, our family was in the midst of a very difficult season.

Emotionally, I cried more tears than I ever dreamed were possible.

And spiritually, though I longed to hear the voice of my Savior through His Word and through His Spirit, the heavens were strangely silent. It was though my prayers seemed to be bouncing off the ceiling, and they weren't going any farther.

I even went to a doctor because I was such a mess at one point, and the doctor looked at me, and he said, "Carrie, tell me about the white space in your life."

And I looked at him like many of you are looking at me here today, and I said, "I don't know what you're talking about. What white space?"

And he said, "I believe that, that you don't know." Then he said, "Carrie, you were never designed to work 24/7. God didn't design you that way."

I said, "Oh, no, no, no. You don't understand. I'm not working. I'm ministering, and I love it! And if you could just get me back to the place where I want to be, then I can re-engage in what I want to do."

And this godly, believing doctor looked at me, and he said, "Carrie, the Sabbath is not a suggestion."

I heard his words, but I didn't heed them. I didn't listen to what he said. I agreed, but I didn't really take it to heart and begin to walk in that truth. And the miry pit that I was in, the ball and chain became increasingly weighty in my life.

I was a mess. I'm fifty-two years old, but I never experienced anything like the darkness of that season. So when I sensed God saying to me, "Come away and rest for a while," I hesitated. I feared. To be honest, I wanted to run in the opposite direction. I had a thousand "what ifs" that ran through my mind.

What if I can't hear Him speak to me through His Word?

What if I don't know what He's trying to tell me? 

What if I walk out of there, and I'm really no different than I was when I went in to meet with Him? 

What if I fail again?

Though trembling in fear in that season, I've walked with the Lord long enough to know that obedience brings sweet blessing. I've also walked with Him long enough to know that I do not trust my own heart. So I told some of those friends that surrounded my life what I sensed God prompting me to do, and I asked them to hold me accountable. "Don't let me not do this. As much as I don't want to, keep pushing me until I do this."

And so I scheduled a day and asked a few friends to pray. As the day drew near, a sweet, precious friend of mine, Dawn, asked me how she could pray specifically for me. She came to my cubicle here in the office, and she said, "Carrie, I know Friday you're going away. How can I pray specifically?"

She doesn't remember that I physically grabbed her, though I wanted to. So if I didn't, it was inside of me to do that. I wanted to grab her and say, "Pray that I'll know what to do. Pray that I'll know what books to take. Pray that I'll know what sermons to listen to. Pray that I'll know what messages to listen to." I was intense.

And the look on her face was somewhat confounded as she looked at me and said, "Carrie, maybe He just wants to tell you that He loves you."

Tears streamed down my face, but inside I screamed, "No! No! No! Don't you know I'm unworthy? Don't you know how I've struggled? Don't you know the doubts and the fears and the confusion in my mind? Can't you see the ball and chain that's in my life? I can't go into His presence like that."

I guess I saw these chains as an obstacle to God loving me, and somehow I felt like I needed to get rid of them. I needed to clean up my act. I needed to figure it all out. I needed to get all my ducks in a row, you know? I just have rowed ducks in my life, but they never stay in a row.

But I felt like, "If I'm going to go in His presence, if He's prompting me to come away with Him, then I need to get my act together before I can do that, before I can ever deserve His love."

In fact, if you'd asked me in April of 2012 what I would need to be equipped for the journey the Lord was just about to take me on, I would have given you a list a mile long: Get my life in order, be a better wife, be a better mother, do all of these things. That's what I would have told you. Help me get rid of these chains. That would have been on the list.

You see, in April of 2012, I didn't know that two months later I would be diagnosed with cancer. I didn't know, but my God knew, and He knew exactly what I would need to be equipped for the journey that He was about to take us on.

First Chronicles chapter 12, is one of my favorite chapters in the Old Testament. It talks about the sons of Issachar later in the chapter and how we need to be sons and daughters of Issachar today, those who understand the times and know what people should do because they understand the Word of God.

I love that chapter. In the first part of that chapter, it talks about the mighty men of God who were coming to David at a time of war. They were preparing for war, and they were coming, gathering unto David, and it says that those men were equipped.

And before I go into any situation, I like to know that I'm equipped. Don't you? What I thought I needed, what I would have thought I needed to be equipped for a journey called cancer really had very little to do with reality. What I really needed was the tender, compassionate, gracious reminder of my Savior's love, of the truth of who I am because I'm His daughter, because I'm hidden in Christ, because I'm accepted in the beloved.

So I went. I went away for a day, hesitantly. Balls and chains still firmly attached to my life. I went away. And, my friends, nothing mystical happened that day. I didn't hear a voice. I didn't hear an audible voice, but I met with the King of kings. I sat at the feet of Jesus who said, "Come away and rest in My love."

And over and over again, through His Word, through His Spirit, through the music that would play, He just said again and again, "Carrie, I love you. I love you. I loved you while you were yet dead in trespasses and sins. I can never love you more than I did then, and I can never love you less. I love you."

And by the end of that day that I had been so hesitant about entering into, I didn't want to go home. I wanted to build a tent and stay right where I was, in the presence of the living God.

Oh, precious friends, I do not know what Jesus is saying to you today, but I know He's speaking. I know He's speaking. He's always speaking to our hearts. He's so relational. He's all about intimacy. He wants a relationship with you that's intimate.

I know this: Whatever He's saying to you, He loves you, and He wants you to know that. He wants you to believe it in the core of who you are where His love becomes the sieve through which you see everything, because if you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you're no longer condemned. Scripture says He delights in you. Your sins are forgiven—past, present, and future.

Dannah: Amen Carrie. Carrie Gaul with some precious truths to sink your heart into. I hope you’ve felt the sweet company of your sisters in Christ today. You are not alone in your exhaustion. Nancy’s shared her story, so has Carrie. And now it’s my turn!

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A few years ago, I was coming to the end of my energy supply. I was on tour for True Girl. (True Girl is our ministry for 7–12 year-old girls and their moms.) I love ministering to God’s girls. But tour life requires sleeping in a tour bus, getting up early to set up in a new church each day, and that takes about six hours. Then, we rest a bit before doing about six hours of meet and greet, pre-event, event, and book signing before eating dinner at 10:30 p.m. Then, getting up early the next day to do it again.

I get really tired. Once, after a hard weekend in Canada, I literally got in the fetal position in my bunk and just felt like my body was breaking.

Sigh. In moments like that I am continually faced with a body that is limited. 

Do you feel it? 

Here are two things God has taught me. I pass them on for your own moments of fetal-position exhaustion when you realize how limited you are.

1. Your limitedness reminds you that you were created to require Someone transcendent.
   You are limited. God is not! He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is self-existing. His power knows no end. Our needs for food, rest, friendship, and even pleasure remind us that we need the omnipotent God. (see Psalm 62:5) "Burn out" tells us that we have forgotten to live as if heaven rules—something my friend Nancy says a whole lot.
    
2. Your neediness reminds you that you are an image bearer of God, and your life was created to be lived in submission to His pattern and plan.
   The Genesis account of creation shows us that God worked. It also reveals that He rested. It’s not as if the eternal omnipotent God needed to rest. And I certainly cannot imagine that He didn’t have things to do after just creating an entire universe! But He modeled rest for us. He later commands a rhythm of rest for you and me. “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy” (Ex. 20:8).
   
   When you don't obey God with a routine of Sabbath, you are declaring your belief that the world depends on you. When you obey God and observe sabbath, you declare a better belief—that God created this world and it will go on spinning without you. You live as if you truly believe that heaven rules.

God demands that you observe a rhythm of work and rest. If He commands it, it is possible. As complicated as that might be in your life.

You might say:

• Rest? I have toddlers!
• Rest? I have a demanding job!
• Rest? I am a caretaker for a sick family member!
• Rest? I’m in the middle of a ministry tour of my own kind.

Today, I want to take you into a passage of Scripture that reveals the secret to experiencing rest in Christ even when demands press in upon you. 

Disclaimer: what I’m about to tell you does not exempt you from practicing sabbath.That’s something we all need. But, I do think it will help you with some of the tension you’re feeling when it just seems impossible to slow down. You see, rest and work often co-exist in the energy economy of God. In fact, I want to read these words of Jesus to you:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

That’s Matthew 11:28–30.

Notice the invitation to “come” is mingled with both the promise of rest and the language of work. A yoke is a funny thing to mention when someone’s pooped out, don’t you think?

I think this might mean rest for your soul doesn’t ultimately come from walks in the woods or bubble baths. True rest for your soul comes from Jesus. Period. His rest is supernatural and comes when and where you need it. No matter what limitations you have in your life.

To see what I mean, open your Bible to Mark chapter 6, and you’ll read about how exhausted the disciples were. Let me read Mark 6:30-32:

The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. 

Jesus extends the invitation: come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest for a while. How great that must have sounded . . . a desolate place to rest! So they followed Jesus.

Only things don’t work out like they had probably imagined. People saw them going to their place of rest and recognized them—not one or two or ten people . . . but 5,000 men plus their wives and kids!

Jesus is preparing to feed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread and two fish and a handful of very weary followers. Oh, they sure don’t have enough food, and the disciples are at the end of their limited supply of energy. But they’re about to be supernaturally energized—and nourished—by the Limitless One.

The Bible tells us they all ate and were satisfied . . . all of them. Let me say that again. These worn out disciples ate and were satisfied. (I kind of imagine them experiencing that along with sore feet from all the work, but none-the-less something amazing had refreshed their souls. They were satisfied!)

Friend, God has done that for me over and over. Filled me with satisfaction when I was at the end of me. On that tour, I could have grumbled about exhaustion. Instead, I told Jesus. I’m really out of energy, Lord. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.”

Lord, what do you want to teach me? “Come!”

I ended up in the back room of a church full of brooms and dustpans and clutter. I sat in a chair. And friends—sitting nearly upright—I took the nap of my life! One of my team members came into that same room and woke me accidentally. I was so deeply rested I wondered, Did I miss the event? My friend assured me I’d only been in that closet of a room fifteen minutes. But oh, I was satisfied!

As you obey God and rest, the world will not automatically become kinder and easier and more peaceful. But God’s Spirit will show up in your limitedness and supernaturally provide for you. He’ll do it for you, my friend if you come to Him!

You may not have the luxury of taking time off from work. Perhaps you have toddlers at home and identify all too well with not having time to eat. Your realities may make some decisions to rest very difficult to make.

But, follow Him. None of our world’s self-care luxuries will satisfy you if you aren’t following Jesus.

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This has been such a sweet time looking to Jesus together, my friend. I hope you’ll continue to turn your eyes upon Him as you worship with your church family this weekend. 

And, as we begin to anticipate the Christmas season to come (yes, I’m already excited!), I hope you’ll read Nancy’s new Advent devotional, Consider Jesus: The Person and Work of Christ. It’s a wonderful tool to help you focus on the Savior in a very distracting world. As we’ve seen today, He is our source of peace, joy, and rest. Let’s pursue these precious gifts this Christmas. They are free in Christ Jesus! The Consider Jesus Advent devotional is yours for a gift of any amount during the month of October. To donate, visit ReviveOurHearts.com. 

Next weekend, join us as we look to Jesus together yet again—this time through prayer. We’re talking about practical strategies to weave prayer into our ordinary lives, so that looking to Jesus becomes a natural part of our spiritual rhythms.

Thanks for listening today. I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.