“As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.” 2 Thessalonians 3:13
Exhausted, depleted, spent, bushed, fatigued, sapped, knackered, or beat; whatever you call it, feeling weary is part of the human experience. The specific things that wear us out vary, but there are commonalities.
First, we have the physical weariness of life. Work of any kind creates a longing in us for rest: parents desire uninterrupted sleep, employees, and business owners alike long for a vacation, caregivers wish for a break, students eagerly anticipate holidays. Our bodies are frail and need physical rest. And if we neglect this need, our bodies will eventually shut down. The need for physical rest is an inescapable fact of life.
Then there is spiritual and emotional fatigue, which comes from the constant barrage of struggles in ourselves, our families, our communities, and our countries. We get worn out by wrestling with our flesh and bumping up against other people's flesh. Time and time again, our feelings are trampled, our hopes dashed, our spirits depressed by our own failures and the failures of others. This weariness is so severe that we cannot vacation our way out of it. We need a Savior, a Comforter, a Rest-Giver.
In Matthew 11, we read Jesus' invitation to all who are spiritually and emotionally weary, "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." Matthew 11:28-30
Indeed, Jesus is the answer for the weary, sin-ladened, law-burdened heart. We cannot fix ourselves. We cannot achieve lasting victory over our sin struggles or face the sin struggles of others apart from Jesus and His cross. As we come to the cross of Christ to have our sin burdens lifted, and to receive the sacrificial love of God, it both transforms our hearts and gives us rest. We look to our Lord, risen and victorious, and receive His Spirit and His power, which comforts and heals us and gives us new life.
But there is another type of tiredness that threatens us after we find rest from our law-keeping labors in Jesus’ death and resurrection for us, and this is the weariness of doing what is right. This weariness comes to those in full-time ministry and volunteers, to pastors and nursery workers, the young and the old. It can come on gradually or suddenly, but this temptation, this being weary in well-doing, comes to the whole body of Christ at some point in time. So, what are we to do when our “doing good” for the glory of God becomes “Good grief, when does it end?” We look to Jesus!
We find this solution in Hebrews 12:3, “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” There is nothing more encouraging and empowering to the heart than looking to the cross of Christ and seeing the lengths that Jesus went to find us, rescue us, and give us rest. He pushed past His weariness in the Garden of Gethsemane to go to the cross, to provide rest for you.