Dealing with Emotional Exhaustion

One of the most common concerns of new believers is not hearing God’s voice. Anxious that they might be missing crucial information from Him, many of them resort to all kinds of tactics, and some of those may do more harm than good. Particularly in this area of our spiritual growth, error can creep into our thinking and believing. It can do so with even the most seasoned veterans on this Christian journey. It is mostly because we forget that we are the children of a God that has no equal. He is all powerful and all knowing, and there isn’t anything He cannot do. We didn’t choose Him first, He chose us first. He chose us before the foundation of the world to be His very own people, and He knows everything there is to know about us, even the number of hairs on our heads. So, when it comes to getting a message to any individual, best believe God knows exactly how and when to do it. The issue is whether or not we will listen.

Our prayer requests are as varied as we are. We all want God to bless us in various areas at different times in our lives. In this way, our prayer requests serve as an indicator of where we are in our hearts and minds. They reveal a great deal about how we’re valuing our relationships with God because they signify what is important to us. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 6:21 that wherever our treasure is, that’s the place where the desires of our hearts will be as well. In other words, our hearts are invested in the thing that mostly occupies our focus and thoughts; and God knows exactly what those desires are.

Psalm 44:21(NLT) says, “God would surely have known it, for he knows the secrets of every heart.” God knows even the most intricate, tiny crevices of our inner being, He knows those places we think no one will never see or notice. He knows us better than we know ourselves, and He also knows when the focus and desires of our hearts aren’t to know Him more, but to get more from Him. Not valuing our relationship with God more than we value the desires of our hearts is what sometimes causes the fuzziness in our reception. God is speaking, but because we’re dialed into the wrong channel, we’re missing the message.

As God’s children, our chief mission is to give glory to God. Glorious is who He is, and glory is what He deserves. So, our desires, as varied and multifaceted as they may be, must include an intention to give God glory. Our desires must be based first and foremost on our aim to take what God gives and then somehow give it back to Him. If this is not our focus and intention, the treasure of our hearts is not where He expects it to be.

When the treasure of our hearts is focused elsewhere, Heavenly Father doesn’t tell us, “NO!!! You’re not getting what you’ve asked for!!!” He’s a loving God, and He tells us, “I hear you, my child, but I must work with you through My Holy Spirit so you can change your heart. When your heart changes, you will be more like my Son, Jesus Christ, and this will bring Me glory.”

This is the message Heavenly Father delivers to us, and He has endless methodologies to get it done. We should never think that we can’t hear His message because His methods are flawed. This could never be the case. The flaw is in our hearing. God can work through any situation, relationship, person, environment, or thing, and He weaves messages throughout our everyday existence, but again, are we listening?

God’s truth never wavers. There is but one True God and He is the Source of all truth. Psalm 119:160(NIV) says about Him, “All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal.” Knowing this will aid us tremendously to tune in to what God is speaking. He’s not in the business of telling us only what we want to hear. He will tell us the truth, and only the truth. Jesus Christ said in John 16:13(NLT), “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.” God’s message is to guide us to clarity and purpose. He is telling us about the race He’s set before us. He’s either revealing the thing that is slowing our pace, telling us how to move it out of our way, and He’s telling us what we need to do to be more like Christ so that we remain in the place of His safety and blessing. Outside of Christ, there is no light, it is only in Christ that we receive the things of God.

Know this for sure, Heavenly Father’s desire is to see us blessed. In Christ, we move in only two directions, forward and upward. When we’re not seeing our way made clear to the blessings God wants to give us, Jesus Christ tells us to seek to know him more through God’s Word, for Jesus Christ is the living Word. He is the truth, and the truth will make us free. Jesus prayed to God for the disciples in John 17:17(NLT), “Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth.” This is the goal of God’s message, and if we are looking for something to make us anything other than sanctified by God’s truth, we will miss the mark.

Often, we will hear a Word preached about our wrong attitude, thinking, or behavior, and we reject it. Instead of giving it our full attention so the Holy Spirit can lead and elevate us, we dismiss what has been spoken and taught. We don’t want to hear it. If we won’t hear God’s correction, how can we hear anything else? His correction is the key that unlocks the door to blessings. When we humble ourselves before God, we will also position ourselves to crucify the thing that has caused our hearing to be blocked. Jesus Christ is the subject of all God’s messages to us, and he said in Matthew 23:12(NLT), “But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” As we humble ourselves to hear what He is speaking, God’s message will come in loud and clear. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Dealing with Emotional Exhaustion

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