Title: Fatigue of Faith (Psalm 143:5-9)
Contents
The muggy and hot summer months make us feel tired. This summer has been exceptionally hot and humid due to frequent rains. This climate makes us tired. In addition, in summer, events and vacations do not give us vitality, but rather increase our fatigue. As a result, some patients suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome.
There are times when we experience the phenomenon of fatigue strongly in our religious life. Even at this time, there must be some who thought that my religious life was exhausting. However, this fatigue phenomenon is not a special phenomenon for any specific person, but a phenomenon that most believers experience occasionally in their religious life.
David, the psalmist, said today, "Answer me quickly, O LORD; my soul is weary; do not hide your face, lest I be like one going down to the grave."
Likewise, David, who was a man after God's heart and was a brave man of faith, had times when his life of faith became exhausted. There are times when people who never thought they would fall fall down. There were times when the soul was weary of fatigue.
But when my soul was weary, David said, "I stretched out my hands toward you, and longed for you like dry land."
However, most people become irritable, complaining, resentful, and discouraged when they feel the fatigue of their faith. Therefore, the fatigue of faith can be the most dreadful enemy in the life of faith.
In Deuteronomy 25:17-18, when the people of Israel left Egypt, the Amalekites said, "Your weariness was against you, and you struck down the weak who fell behind you." Therefore, the believers of our faith said that they should remember this when they are exhausted from exhaustion and are left behind. It is the fact that the soldiers of the evil devil and Satan, like Amalek, are getting tired of the saints and are rushing to attack the saints.
Why does the fatigue of faith come?
First, when you lose your mission, fatigue occurs.
We must live by our mission. We eat and drink because of our mission, and we lie down and get up because of our mission.
However, when the mission is nowhere to be found and when you lead a self-centered life of faith, fatigue comes. If you only think about human beings, focus on your own gain, and focus on everything, you can't help but feel fatigue in your religious life. He said, "What do you have that you do not receive? If I have received it, why do I boast as if I did not receive it?" (1 Corinthians 4:7).
We must lead a life of faith centered on God. Everything we enjoy now has been given to us by God. So instead of trying to please yourself, you should try to please God. Only then can you feel the fatigue of faith.
Second, when you are not filled with the Holy Spirit, you will experience fatigue in your life of faith.
Paul said that faith is a gift of God, and that even responding to God "is not of a willful man, but of a merciful God" (Romans 9:16). Faith is not mine, it is a gift from God. Therefore, only when the Spirit of God pours out faith can we become men of faith.
Therefore, we must not become saints who have lost the time to watch and pray. We must not lose the time to receive grace.
Third, when we live a lukewarm religious life without any religious experience, the fatigue of faith appears.
When there is suffering, we pray and long for grace because of suffering. And in the process, you will have many religious experiences. However, if you lead a lukewarm religious life, your spirit will become sluggish. Too often we forget the power of faith.
Fourth, the fatigue of faith comes from the spiritual environment and the spiritual atmosphere.
Fatigue is contagious quickly. When the people of Israel came out of Egypt, not only the people of Israel, the chosen people, came out of Egypt, but a large number of various tribes and cattle also came out of Egypt. However, it is possible for these many motley people to break the spiritual environment and the spiritual atmosphere. They were always behind and had a hard time, complaining and resenting, demanding only meat, water, and idols, holding back the people of Israel who were trying to move forward.
What should we do when we are tired of our faith life? You must be supplied with spiritual power so that you can lead a life of faith full of vitality. What should I do if a charged electric device loses power and rattles? You have to find a power outlet and unplug it to get power. Therefore, if you feel tired from your religious life, you must find the source of your power. God is asking us, "Are you going to put your plug in my outlet?" God is already here. He has great power and wisdom to impart to us. He has all the resources we need and is already ready to share. We just need to plug our plugs into his outlet.
David didn't give up when his soul was weary. Rather, I remembered the God who worked in the past and gave me grace.
When we feel weary and tired from our religious life, we should humbly remember and remember God who gave us grace in the past.
God always remembered how I overthrew you from the land of Egypt, where the Israelites were enslaved when they felt weary and tired of their faith.
When life gets tired, you have to think about good things. Good things should be remembered. That will give you courage again.
And I stretch out my hands toward you, and my soul longs for you more than on dry ground. God is the source of power. We must extend our hands to the God who will give us the grace to wash away our tiredness and longing for the Lord.
President Roh Moo-hyun and the current participatory government are showing fatigue. Nothing is being cleaned up, and the public's support is only 29%. That's why they say that if you just open your mouth, you're tired. If the leaders are tired and the government is tired, how can the people be happy? Businesses don't invest and consumers don't open their wallets. All resources are drained abroad. It shouldn't be like this. Fatigue must be overcome. You have to be strong.
You will experience fatigue from time to time in your life of faith. However, if you neglect your religious life, delay your approach to God, or stop praying because of that fatigue, your spirit will eventually be destroyed. You run the risk of falling into a worse state later than the first. Like King David, when my soul is weary, I hope that you will become saints who stretch out your hands toward the Lord and long for the Lord more. (Rev. Kihyun Song)