In our online service this week (link) we talked about God’s sustaining grace (1 Kings 19:1-18). We discovered that:
God’s sustaining grace helps me when I’m TROUBLED
God’s Sustaining grace helps me when GOD SAYS "NO"
But there is one other situation in which we are helped by his sustaining grace:
God’s Sustaining Grace helps me when I’m TIRED.
Life is often exhausting! Especially for a Christian, because it requires a lot of strength to do the right thing. You can’t always do the easy thing…because it’s often wrong. You have to do hard thing, because it’s what God wants. That requires effort and strength.
Many of you are the only believer where you work. It’s tough. Do you ever get tired of doing what’s right? It’s tiring moving against the flow, swimming upstream. When all the culture is going one way and you’re trying to go the other, it’s tough. Elijah complained about it. “I’m the only one left….” He said.
Yet God says (Gal 6:9), “Let us not grow weary in doing right for we will reap a harvest of blessing if we do not give up.”
But where do you get the power to do the right thing?
2 Corinthians 1:21-22 states “It is God who gives us the ability to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us and He has identified us as His own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts.”
Standing firm & the Holy Spirit go together. Having the Holy Spirit in your heart is the difference between doing it in your own strength and doing it in His.
The reason why some of us are tired all the time is because we are trying to live the Christian life and that doesn’t work. You are trying to be like Jesus. You’re trying to do good. You’re trying to be a person of integrity. You’re trying. And you get tired.
You can try and run a marathon today- and you’ll fail. So instead of simply trying, why don’t you do these two things:
One– Start training:
Two– Start trusting:
People say “It’s so hard to be a Christian today!” It’s not hard. It’s impossible! The only person who ever lived the Christian life perfectly was Jesus. But Jesus trained for 30 years for his three-year ministry. What spiritual disciplines are you using to train with?
Jesus trusted his Father. Rather than try to be like Jesus, let Jesus be Jesus in you. Let Jesus be Jesus through you. Stop trying and start trusting and start training. The key to the Christian life is not trying, it’s trusting and training.
Do you know how many years it took Noah to build the ark? The Bible says 120 years. Can you imagine waiting 120 years for anything? How did he have the ability to keep on keeping on? The Bible tells us in Genesis 6, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”
God wants to give you His power to do it. To do what you need to do.
Philippians 2:13 For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
Would you agree that God has more power than you? Obviously! God made the sun. The sun produces more power in one single second than all the human race has used throughout all of history. The sun has enough energy to burn for thirty billion more years. Yet God made the sun. That’s the kind of power He’s got. Then He comes to you and says, “You need some power? I’ll give you the will and the power to handle it.”
Because God’s power is unlimited, He never gets tired. When it says that on the seventh day God rested, it wasn’t because He was tired; it was because He had finished his work. Has more than enough power to sustain you by his sustaining grace.
– Phil
