I can't do any more

I realize that through my efforts to motivate and encourage others, sometimes a list of do's and don'ts is not what someone needs to hear, yet most of my posts are about doing something different, trying something new to jump start ourselves into action and be about our Father's business. But in my efforts to challenge you to do something, I realize that sometimes we can reach a place where we've already tried that. We've tried being better, we've tried setting time aside for the Lord and devotion or quiet time, we've tried reading our bible more, we've tried praying more often than before, we done the list that everyone throws our way and yet, we still see no results from our efforts and we're exhausted and tired from giving it our best and still getting no where.

If you find yourself in this place or if you've been there before (we've all been there)... this post is for you.

Sometimes we simply come to the place where we say... "I can't do any more." I'm exhausted, I'm weak, I'm so tired. Everything I've tried hasn't worked, I can't do any more... I'm done.

It's in moments like these that we must know that even though we can't go on, we've had enough... we must remember that the Lord never grows faint or weary. He understands everything that is going on within you and if you call upon him he will give you strength, he'll give you power over your weakness. You see, we desperately want to fix things. We think we can fix this and fix that, try harder here and this will improve and that will get better, but it doesn't always work out that way and we get so discouraged and tired of our fruitless efforts. Then you read a post like I've written in the past that says study more, pray more, read more, do more and everything will get better and you know, sometimes it will. Sometimes that's what God expects us to do, is do those things that we haven't been doing and through them we'll grow closer and be more obedient to following His direction for our lives... but sometimes we do those things and nothing happens, nothing works and we wonder... what am I doing wrong? Where is God in all of this?

The good news is that God never tires, he never gets weary, he never loses strength, He is everlasting and when we wait upon Him, call upon him, and put our full faith and trust in him, he will renew our strength in time. We will be able to run again and not grow weary, we will be able to walk and not faint, he will give us power over our weakness, and one day again, through his power, not ours, we will be able to once again do whatever it is that God leads us to do. It's like we need a time of rest, we need to know that God understands what we're going through, we need to know that He can carry us through the trials and set backs we go through, and finally we need to understand that He knows when we can't do any more. He knows when we've had enough, he knows when we have no more strength, he sees when we're about to faint in our weakness. These following verses were written to comfort Gods people then and they still comfort us today.

Isaiah 40:28-31
(28) Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
(29) He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.
(30) Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall,
(31) But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

You see, even the strongest people get tired at times, but God's power and strength never diminish. He always hears us, listens to us, and he's never too busy or to tired to help us. His strength is our source of strength and when you feel like life is crushing you and you cannot go one more step, remember that you can call upon God to renew your strength. My prayer for you is that you will know the difference between doing the things that God wants you to do, and knowing when you can't do any more because you have nothing more to give. May you wait upon the Lord for renewed strength and hopefully begin running the race again with the strength and energy that only God can sustain.

God bless you.

Steve