5 Steps For When You’re Weary from Spiritual Warfare
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Sometimes spiritual warfare is exhausting, and for several reasons.
Lack of discipline in going to bed early
Circumstances outside of our control that prevent us from getting adequate sleep
Viruses or other sickness
Fighting in our own strength, instead of the strength of the Lord
These are some things that can causes us to grow weary in spiritual warfare.
And the enemy would love nothing more than to keep us in this state of weariness, especially if he thinks that our weariness will prevent us from getting up and doing the very thing God has called us to do.
Weariness is one of his most well-known strategies!
Weariness is common in battle. Ask any solider who has been in battle. The days are long and the nights are short. The stress of combat quickly takes its toll on their body.
It’s no different for the solider of Christ.
But inner strength and character are built when we refuse to allow weariness to hold us back from our divine calling to go to war against an enemy we can’t see.
5 Steps for When You’re Weary from Spiritual Warfare
When you are weary from battle and tempted to lie down on the battlefield…
When you’re ready to just give up or believe the whispered lies of the enemy that this battle was all in your mind and that everything will turn out okay if you just take a step back for a while…
Here are 5 ways you can warrior on in the strength of the Lord.
1. Get up anyway
I wont lie. Everything in me was protesting as I shuffled downstairs this morning and with bleary eyes made my first cup of coffee.
I sat down in my favorite chair with my cuppa right next to me on the end table, sunk my head down in my hands and just started to pray weary prayers.
I was tired, but it was sweet.
And God met me there. Suddenly, the reason why I was there grew clear to me and something began to rise up within me – because the truth overcame the lies the enemy had tried to whisper in my ear while lying in my warm comfortable bed.
That I could let it go for one day
That I needed a few more minutes of sleep
That I’d already fought enough in this battle
When you’re weary and tired from battle, you can listen to the lies of the enemy and let them capture you in their hidden net of passivity, or you can get up anyway and go to war!
2. Remember the reason for your battle
As I sat here this morning with my head in my hands, trying to silence the lies of the enemy that my battle was over, I had this nagging feeling that there was a deeper reason for the battle than the one being whispered to me.
“Oh yea! That’s it! No, that battle isn’t over….and the first one really isn’t either!”
But the deeper reason is what immediately caused something of holy unction to rise up inside of me and go to war.
No – that battle is far from over.
But I needed to be reminded that while the victory in the 2nd battle may be seen in flesh-and-blood circumstances, the 1st victory is 100% spiritual and needed to be fought entirely in the spirit.
The consequences of defeat are far to dire to risk not going to battle.
Despite my weariness.
If I have to crawl to victory on bloodied knees, I will!
3. Don’t battle in your own strength
Here’s the confusing part.
It took physical strength to get out of bed and come downstairs to meet with God, but as I began to pray, I felt a supernatural strength surging up inside of me leading me to earnest prayer.
God will not call us to a task that He won’t enable us to do.
We have neither the strength nor the ability to go into a spiritual battle without His strength and His arm leading us there.
Going into a spiritual battle on our own is dangerous and deadly!
Let God teach you how to both rest in Him and fight in His strength at the same time. It is a beautiful balance of rest and war.
Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
4. Ask your friends to fight with you
In Exodus 17 we read about how the Amalekites went to war against the Israelites while they were still wandering in the desert.
As it turns out, when Moses raised his hand, the Israeites would gain the upper hand, but when he let his hand down, the Amalekites would gain the upper hand.
All day long, until sundown, the Israelites battled the Amalekites.
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As you can imagine, Moses’ arms grew tired and heavy, so Aaron and Hur found a rock for him to sit on and then they stood on either side of him, propping his hands up until the Israelites won the battle.
Do you have an Aaron and Hur?
Do you have those trusted spiritual warriors you can turn to in times of war to help you wage this spiritual battle?
Call on them and let them join with you as fellow warriors in this battle until you gain the victory.
5. Take time for spiritual refreshment
No solider can battle on day and night without reprieve…without taking time to refresh his body and soul.
And while a spiritual warrior needs physical and mental refreshment, too, he also needs spiritual refreshment.
When we go to relax, it is tempting to want to just escape in a good book or movie, a Netflix binge or whatever our favorite hobby is.
And there is nothing wrong taking some time for recreation, but, don’t forget to take some time to refresh your spirit.
A good book or movie, playing a round of golf or volleyball, will not refresh your spirit.
Take some time in God’s Word, finding those books and passages that will refresh your spirit. Add to that some resources for deeper study, doing Greek and Hebrew word studies, or even find a great book by a trusted author on the topic of the battle you are fighting right now.
The greatest refreshment for our spirit is God’s Word!
A final word
Physical weariness is normal; but spiritual weariness is a danger signal.
Our spirit grows weary when:
We allow the enemy to wrap us in a web of passivity
When we lose sight of our calling and task
When we battle in our own strength and not the strength of the Lord
When we battle alone
When we fail to refresh our spirit
Dear sister, choose today to get up and fight your battle in the strength of the Lord, but do these five things that will help you stay strong as you do!
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Resources for Spiritual Warfare
- Freedom in Christ FREE 14-Day Challenge for Women - July 23, 2024
- 10 Bible Verses for Freedom in Christ – FREE Download - July 16, 2024
- Walk Free In Christ – the Book of Galatians Workbook – FREE DOWNLOAD - July 3, 2024
Loved this article! Much needed at this time and season of my life!!!
From what you’re describing as spiritual warfare, I doubt you have any idea of what a real and intense spiritual warfare is and the fatigue that results from it. It is not the same as physical fatigue, although that is one of the manifestations. Spiritual battle is much more than just fighting our laziness in the morning. It really sounds like you have no idea what it’s like to be battered by blows from the enemy and rained by fiery darts from demons. YOU HAVE NO IDEA, Lady. You have no idea what it’s like to be tired of it all, to be asking where God is and why he leaves you in the battlefield alone. You doesn’t seem to have fought intense attacks from the enemy or uncanny situations that are just cannot be explained by logic or science. To equate spiritual battle with a battle with yourself whether or not to wake up in the morning when you’re still tired means you really don’t know spiritual warfare fatigue. Battling physical fatigue in bed in the morning is a self-discipline battle, not necessarily a spiritual battle. I don’t think you have experienced so many deaths and losses in a short time period and/or other life events that seem to be orchestrated against you over and over again. Now that IS EXTREMELY EXHAUSTING. Your examples of ‘spiritual warfare’ is an INSULT to those who really are experiencing spiritual warfare! If you really have experienced spiritual warfare, those little battles in your mind to decide whether to wake up or not is NOTHING compared to real spiritual warfare that is really costing your life. I bet you have not battled with whether or not to stay alive today or to kill yourself. I bet you don’t know what it’s like to be tormented by the devil day in and out to the point that you are crying out to God begging for His Mercy. The torment is so intense that you can’t make any meaning of life anymore at all sometimes. I bet you have never lived a life so full of turns of event that it just doesn’t make any sense anymore. You ponder about your decisions, but it always always seems there is another force that blocks or sabotages you! THAT’S a real spiritual warfare! And it is freaking EXHAUSTING. Christians like you are the real stumbling blocks! You paint life as a rose garden and heck you minimize spiritual warfare with your own version of it. YOU HAVE NO IDEA, Missy! Keep drinking your tea in a blustery fall evening with your boys in your rose garden in Croatia! Smh
I am sorry that you found this post offensive. To be fair, though, this post is only one post of several posts I’ve written on spiritual warfare – some of which delve much deeper into the subject than this one. However, the assumption than I’ve not dealt with warfare beyond turning my alarm off in the morning is an unfair one to make. If you read my blog, or follow me on social media, you know that I have dealt with a lot of loss in my life, I have been dealt a lot of blows that have left me stunned and grappling for answers. I, too, have had moments where I’ve contemplated taking my life. Spiritual warfare is something I am intimately acquainted with. But this is why reading one blog post doesn’t give you a comprehensive look at the entirety of my thoughts and experiences on the subject – as opposed to reading an entire volume. I encourage you to look at the list of links I have below the post, as well as check out some of the Bible studies that I have written (especially my study on the book of Ephesians), where I delve even more deeply into the subject. But know that even these are not comprehensive in nature as I am currently still writing on the subject. Such are blogs – ongoing diaries of what we’ve learned, as opposed to books, which have a beginning and an end.