“Come to Me, all who are labour 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.” – Matthew 11:28-29

TO SAY THAT it is not easy in knowing and understanding what is going on in our world would be an understatement. There is so much that it would take an endless commitment to keep updated with the onslaught of information that tirelessly and relentlessly bombards our screens. ‘Tis the age of information as the majority of us believe; never have we had access to the latest scoop as we do now, and all at the command of our very fingertips.

Many of us, no doubt, have repeatedly asked the question – silently or openly – as to what in the world is going on. As Christians we hear of and witness so many entangled in immorality, scandals, believers falling away, denying the faith, not to mention highly esteemed leaders no longer functioning in their ministerial office – or worse still, no longer walking with God. A deception is most certainly taking place, and at no small rate. Church numbers appear to be heavily declining, church buildings closing either to be demolished, renovated for accommodation, business purposes, or repossessed by other faith groups that are militantly opposed to Christianity. Secularism and humanism are on an unprecedented rise. Culture wars disturb and divide. What was right is now deemed as wrong and the radical societal shifts that counter such values are not just tolerated but now embraced. The court systems are corrupt; judges are becoming all the more culturally biased that breathes lawlessness, our police no longer safeguard our streets as blatant criminals are let off the hook, while the few brave who make their voices heard in upholding the values of a safe society are unjustly arrested, penalised, fined or serve time in prison. Our youth lack sound role models that once were beacons of light and guidance, now leaving a future suspended that is far from promising and favourable; naturally we can only expect an accelerated bleak horizon if sound logic is permitted to have sway. The whole scenario is plain ludicrous, almost unbelievable. The kingdom of darkness is marking its territory unwitnessed in our lifetime. The situation is dire and pessimistic, and unless the Courts of Heaven intervene, what little of hope we see left will further diminish.

Many in their wondering of what is transpiring are feeling a sense of hopelessness that can only be carried for so long; weariness must give way in time, either to a breakthrough or just go along with the flow of persuasive trends. Dare I say that not a few Christians feel the pressure of intensity that has swept our communities, schools, higher education institutions, courts of ‘justice’, activistical arenas and work environments with a leap toward a so-called evolution of advancement of a new humanity and world order. I may not be wrong in discerning a conscious effort among many Christians to remain just standing, uncompromisingly amidst a world of increasing darkness. In such weariness it should come as no surprise that some believers may question as to whether or not their faith is genuine, or whether they will make it to the end; if some of us are honest enough we may sense a little of ourselves in those statements.

We ought to know that some of the New Testament epistles were written to exhort and encourage believers to remain standing and unwavering in the faith. We are in a war, a war entirely foreign to what we are accustomed to reading, hearing and seeing in our world. The weapons of earthly warfare – no matter how sophisticated and overwhelmingly advanced – are of no match to the spiritual realm’s principalities and whose strongholds make a laughing stock of what we boast about physically. We will remember what the apostle Paul wrote in that great chapter of Ephesians 6, “… having done all to stand firm…” (verse 13) and in the next verse he emphasises such a stand. It is not a cowering in fear, but a position taken confidently and maintained via prayer. Such a stance sometimes mirrors the command to “fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord” as Israel was confined between the Red Sea and the advancing Egyptian army (Exodus 14:13). Coupled with such standing is the lifting up of our heads in full expectancy of our complete redemption when Christ returns. Notice what Jesus said in that context: “Straighten up” (Luke 21:28), and the same connotation is echoed in Isaiah 35:3-4, “strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘be strong; fear not! Behold your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God, He will come and save you.”

We have all known those anxious moments when we sense our knees losing the capacity to support us standing upright. Such firm standing is an implicit trust in God no matter what outer realities may seem to powerfully display. Despite Job’s suffering he knew his Redeemer lives, even to the point of stating that if God were to slay him he would still trust Him. I do not think there has ever been a higher statement of such trust, and such faith can only utter such words from inward persuasion birthed by the Holy Spirit. It is such faith that withstands anything and is the kind of belief governed by an irrefutable persuasion that God exists (Hebrews 11:6); it is the very root to all daring exploits of faith, even in the face of acute adversity.

Amidst a plethora of today’s deception, compromise and a seemingly refutation of the deity of Christ, the Truth will more than just survive. Jesus Christ remains throughout all ages THE Way, THE Truth and THE Life in a world utterly confused and where the Church appears to be at a really low level. We are to reckon with the Reality of what the Son of God uttered, “I will build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail.” The very spiritual forces of evil may well advance in extraordinary measures but they shall not overcome; in the midst of what manifests itself as defeat, Christ will unfailingly build His Church. Christ IS reigning until He makes His enemies His footstool (1 Corinthians 15:25), and where He reigns the surging opposition of the enemy becomes the very platform of where the glory of God blindingly shines infinitely greater than our most powerful nuclear fusion.

Some of us may find their faith waning weak, so much that it seems so powerless to withstand the threats of arising persecution; will we deny our Lord as cowards or stand immoveable? It is not so much our faith as to the One Who granted us true faith. It is Grace that called us; grace chose us before time began, and it is that same grace that will keep us, preserve us and empower us to persevere to the end. This grace is what will constrain us to will and to do what is pleasing in His sight.

Look at Peter appallingly falling, failing miserably as he denied the very Son of God, and yet we see God’s grace at work in not giving him up – “Simon, Simon [addressing him as in the flesh – weak, unable to conquer in and of himself], behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he may sift you like wheat [make an utter end of him, and we see this same implication in the life of Job], but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31-32). Peter was heavily wearied by how things had turned out; he was still in denial that the Son of God came for such a purpose to give His life up for a ransom that many be saved; the shock at how a life of three incredible years came to a crashing halt; the miracles as never witnessed before; the hope of life and deliverance from mediocrity; a life of meaningful purpose all but at an end; what seemed a waste – and perhaps even a lie – gave no lasting substance for Peter to risk his life in openly admitting he was one of Christ’s followers. Peter was swamped and overwhelmed by the lies of the enemy until he was alarmed by the rooster’s crowing. Somehow Christ’s penetrative words of foretelling snapped Peter out of his stupour, but it was all too late. The damage had been done and Peter’s fall was irreparable as he wept in great bitterness and anguish of heart at the realisation of what he had just done. Here was Peter rock-bottom; no lower levels existed to sink further, except hell itself, but it was hell enough for Peter to bear his cowardice and denial of the One who spoke words of life that no other has uttered and brought to pass. Judas had gone there as the son of perdition; Peter was suspended over hell’s flames, the flames that appeared to seal the rest of his life and even his destiny. This is the marvel of God’s grace that when we are convinced we are beyond its reach and see no warrant in us of deserving it one iota, God moves in mysterious ways beyond wonder and incalculable marvel; it remains our song for eternity.

Peter was no more real before God than when he said, “Lord, you know all things” (John 21:15-19). In light of his denying Christ three times all things was laid bare, naked, exposed, but in that heart-wrenching exposure was the penetrating gaze of Christ; Eyes of grace, Eyes of unfailing and unending love, commitment and covenant-keeping. Peter and Jesus all alone; Jesus had to have Peter alone. Christ alone was the One Who would have been perfectly just to condemn Peter; hell was surely holding him in its vice until the Son of God liberated him with the truth that because He prayed for him, Peter would certainly make it through stronger than ever before; not stronger in himself but a confirmation of the Rock statement Peter initially gave prior to his denial of Jesus. All things were not just restored but restored beyond human comprehension.

Each one of us has a revelation of such grace to different degrees, but it is the kind that arrests our hearts with overwhelming amazement that we have been chosen, not according to any merit within us or how well we may perform in our maturer years as Christians; it’s in spite all of that. If such choosing of us is initiated purely by the sovereign will and love of God, is a departure from the faith and the loss of such salvation any point at all? What does it achieve except demonstrating – or rather insinuating – that, after all, man’s will is sovereign? If it essentially depends upon our willing to make it through to the end, where is grace; what is grace if sin proves its dominance? “For sin will not have dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14). We couldn’t help but lovingly sin prior to grace; subsequent to grace we are now constrained by the Spirit to lovingly obey God.

Why do some of us get weary despite having sound saving faith in God; shouldn’t we be safeguarded from such? Yes, in essence we ought to be, just as much as we do not have to sin as believers. God allows us to get weary if we’re looking in the wrong direction. It’s not losing our salvation but losing the joy of it until we return to drawing our very sustenance from God; God allows us to wander, but as our Shepherd He will pursue us until we are brought to our senses – “Surely goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life” (Psalm 23:6). As children of God the inevitability of being disciplined by Him shows that we are truly His sons and daughters. There are many things learned through discipline, and is part and parcel of mortifying (putting to death) sin in our lives; it’s the process of sanctification. If we walk contrary to God’s ways, then we can count on the Shepherd’s rod of correction – for our good. Mercy isn’t always perceived as benevolence but sometimes harsh; it’s only afterwards that we see what God saved us from.

If we are becoming despondent with all the evil that’s manifesting in the world, then our focus is off-balance; we our perceiving with a rational viewpoint rather than viewing all world events via the lens of Scripture. That is not to say that we necessarily interpret world events within a biblical timeline per se, but rather our perspectives are rightly governed with the persuasion of God being in absolute control over everything, and that whatever He permits – good or bad – is essentially for our best.

Physical weariness is different from spiritual. If we are spiritually weary it can only mean one thing, and that is we have taken our eyes off from God. We have forgotten grace; we are not consciously encountering its reality and power. In a world that appears and feels so off its hinges as never before we wonder and are taken by surprise, and we shouldn’t be as Christians; we are to expect upheaval in this world. We lose sight of God and the fact that He is the One Who keeps us, even when we lose the joy of our salvation.

Astoundingly, we can lose sight of God within church attendance, participation and ministry to where it becomes monotonous through mere habit. We can be very active in the church and the Christian life but WEARY, feeling our grasp is not as solid as we deem fit, so we tighten our commitment, renew our dedication and yet still, somehow, feel we are continuing to drift, and our vision becoming all the more poorer. We only have to look at the church of Ephesus mentioned in Revelation 2:2-4, “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and have found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for My name’s sake, and you have not grown weary [for any church to hear such words would be mightily encouraging that seems to prove great success]. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” Amazingly this church had not yet grown weary, but it wouldn’t take long for such to happen. They key here is the loss of having such love for the Lord that garrisons everything in our lives. It is so easy to shift our focus off from God to where we look to our giftings, abilities, to our enterprises and to man. Is it any wonder why churches cool down through successive years and decades? It is such a subtle and slight shift of focus to where we forget that it is Christ building His church. Active churches but pitiable in the eyes of God.

I recall a personal incident, some thirty years ago, where on one particular late afternoon I had my pile of devotional books in my ‘quiet time’ to read through. It was a disciplined habit, but somehow it became rote; something that had to be done. I strongly felt the Lord impressing on me to put down the books, go for a walk and be with Him. Some fifteen minutes later I was walking alongside a slow moving and tranquil canal. It was autumn, and at such a time of the year sunsets are often times richer; that afternoon proved so. The air was comfortably cool. No one else was around. It was quiet; no sound of vehicle traffic. I started praying with the longing to be near to God. The scripture, “He leads me beside still waters” and, “He restores my soul” came to life. Just that hour or so proved to be infinitely beneficial compared to just wading my way through the books because it is ‘supposedly’ the done thing! I met with the Shepherd of my soul. That is what devotions are really meant to be about – being with HIM. Reading those books wasn’t wrong; it was my focus was; I saw books but not HIM. “Beyond the Sacred Page, Lord I seek THEE.” How we can become weary so easily even while we are engaged in ‘spiritual’ activity!

“Come to Me all you who are weary…” is not just the call to those who do not know Christ; it is for believers too who are tangled in soul, and when the presence of God is known it makes every bit of difference that transfigures the circumstances we are in. He realigns everything – mentally, emotionally and spiritually where we see Him anew. “Now my eyes have seen You” – as Job said, and everything else falls into subservience as God becomes the primary focus that doesn’t always immediately answer all of our questions but recalibrates us to stand confidently amidst a dark world, knowing our God is orchestrating everything according to the counsel of His will and purposes. Those answers will come one day and at the right moment as He see fit.

The great Scriptural antidote to worrying, fearing and weariness is to “…seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:1-2). The keynote is setting one’s mind; this does not necessitate being unmindful of what transpires around us. What is our mind fixed on; what governs our thinking and outlook? What made the New Testament church thrive was the very practice of minds and hearts taken up with seeking first the kingdom of God, and the church today will find no shortcut, and no other avenue for true biblical success.

It is always the enemy’s work to divert us away from the wondrous simplicity found in Christ, the wonder of walking with Him, seeking His presence continually (Psalm 105:4), and knowing Him in the very dregs, grit and mundane happenings of everyday life. The grace of God that supersedes our weariness is to be worked out (known and evidenced) not on the mountain-top thrills of life, but as Oswald Chambers rightly said, “in the demon-possessed valleys below”. The miracle of a believer sustained and constrained to pursue God is not being removed from everyday scenarios that have great potential to irritate, disturb and mar; that would prove Christianity as being shallow and inefficacious. “In all these things [devilish adversity] we are more than conquerors.” The Spirit-empowered New Testament church knew it, and by the superseding grace of God we can know it too. By it we are made lights unto those who are yet to be saved amidst a confused, lost and dark world.