Don’t Grow Weary

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Weary but Willing

Driving home from school one day, I was so excited to rest. It had been a long day and I was mentally tired, but being out of shampoo and conditioner, I needed to go to the grocery store. In spite of my tiredness, I began to pray in faith for God to use me however He wanted to in the grocery store. I walked into the shampoo and conditioner aisle, and there was a lovely woman whom I had never had the joy of seeing before. God told me to tell her how beautiful she was, and so I looked up and said, “Excuse me, ma’am, you are so beautiful.” She looked straight at me and said, “Are you serious?” I said, “Yes, ma’am, you are stunning.” Before I knew it, she began to tell me personal parts of her story. Tears filled her eyes as she told me that she didn’t think she was beautiful and that she had not experienced joy in a very long time and was overwhelmed with loneliness. I asked her if I could pray for her, and she said yes. In the middle of the shampoo and conditioner aisle, we boldly approached God’s throne of grace. When we were done, we gave each other a hug, and she smiled.

In moments like these, as our flesh seems to be validly screaming and reminding us of how tired we are, we are given the opportunity to either obey our flesh or obey the voice of the Lord. When we choose to walk in faith and trust that His grace is sufficient to give us strength (2 Corinthians 12:9) on the days when we don’t necessarily feel like it or on the days when our fuel is running low, we will experience Him doing exceedingly and abundantly greater things than what we could ever “ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). Through our obedience, those who are discouraged become encouraged in truth.

Jesus’ Example

In Galatians 6:9, Paul spurs us on to not grow weary of doing good, for indeed we will reap a harvest in the proper time if we do not give up. The Lord is encouraging us through Paul because there are definitely moments when it is easy to grow weary of doing good. There will be days that we simply want to go and get our shampoo and conditioner and go home. Done and done, the box is checked off, and it is time for a nap. But to be a follower of Jesus means to live as Jesus lived.

Jesus sometimes had very valid reasons to ignore the people around Him and focus on Himself. In Matthew 14:13 He had just heard about the death of His cousin John the Baptist. He needed to go to a solitary place to be alone with God and process the hurt in His heart, but a large crowd of people began to follow Him. The Word says that when He saw them, He had compassion on them and healed their sick and fed all of them with only five loaves of bread and two fish.

Jesus empathizes with us in our weaknesses. Even if it is something as simple as being tired after a long day and just wanting to go in and out of the grocery store, He understands. And because He understands, we can boldly approach His throne of grace and ask for help in our time of weakness and tiredness and lack of energy (Hebrews 4:16). To be a follower of Him means to deny ourselves (Matthew 16:24) and, by His grace, have compassion on those around us regardless of how we feel.

Called to Encourage

Just like Jesus, we have crowds of people around us, and because of the authority that we have in Christ, we can be a vessel of healing and life to them. He has called you to pray over the students in your school. He has called you to sit with the lonely at lunch. He has called you to step outside of your comfort zone and speak life into people regardless of the response. You cannot determine how others react, but you can choose to obey Jesus’ call. Not tomorrow, for we are not promised tomorrow (James 4:13-14), but today because today is the day that the Lord has made so that you may rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:24). He made this day for you to leave people better than how you found them.

Let us not grow weary of doing good. In the time that our flesh is weak, we can continue to run the race that has been set before us with endurance because Jesus endured the cross knowing the joy that was set before Him (Hebrews 12:1-2). People are too important to God for us to grow weary.