Rest Your Weary Heart... a Five Minute Friday post

I missed y'all last week! I was in California at a conference and it was wonderful. It was filled with a lot of people and noise and great content, but for an introverted slow processor, I would have preferred to have a few quiet days to ease back in to my normal life. Instead, every day was filled with plans upon returning and it's all great stuff - but I don't see an empty day until next week. (God help the person who tries to fill that day... That would be me... God help me!)

This is Five Minute Friday (- a five minute timed free write) and our One Word Prompt for the day is: WEARY

{GO}

Oh man... Weary.  That's a good word, right there! Well - not necessarily 'good' - but definitely timely and spot on for this season.

We can feel just the hint of it around all of our edges, right?
...and this is before the holidays even start!

Last week at the conference I attended, it came as no surprise that someone felt led to pray for those who had been battling an UNUSUAL sense of being weary and worn out. This was a conference for church leaders - of which I shockingly find myself to be now, and no one was shocked at the number of people who stood up for prayer.

I mean, we are tired, y'all.

It starts in our head... our thoughts are non-stop and exhausting and before we know it - it's our hearts that are worn out thin.

When weariness sets in, there is this haze that settles over our vision. It clouds our ambition and drive and it whisper-lies that everything is too hard and that nothing is possible.  It tells us over and over and over again that we just can't (even.)

It woos us and wants us and my how we give in to the sleepy desire for nothingness.

Just a break, please. 


Five minutes! Five minutes would do it... (it's just that sometimes we forget!  Ya see what I did there?)

Here's the deal... we are busy doing good... doing Kingdom work and it is blessed and His favor is all over it and yet, we are given the choice to allow weariness to take root or not.

"Let us not grow weary or become discouraged in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap, if we do not give in." (Gal 6:9)

Self-care is a real thing, my friends! And it is a real thing that we so often neglect!  

There are times and seasons to push through... there are. 
There are times when weariness is trying to slow you down or mess you up and stop whatever good you are doing and you just have to keep on keepin' on.  

Sometimes weariness comes at us and we must remember that there is a spiritual battle in a realm that we cannot see.  We wage war in the heavenlies and weariness has to go.  We build ourselves up and stir up our giftings and we speak life and we live by faith and it is good.  We remember that victory is ours and sometimes we just have to take it by force!  We do.

But there are other seasons and some times what is needed more than pushing through is laying down.

As in - for real... just go lay down!  

Take five minutes and be still and be quiet and let His Rest be a gift to you.

Self-care doesn't require a lot of time... but it does require a bit of intention.

The other night My Honey was listing off a list of all the things he should be doing after work.  He works a full time job and now we also find ourselves being associate pastors to a new church.  We feel like there is always stuff that we should be doing... as our church grows, so does that list.

Instead, he went to see a movie.

And rather than pushing through to cross off things on his list, he sat in a theater and relaxed and laughed out loud... He rested his weary heart and let his soul have room to breathe.

Those lists will always be there... but oh how we need times of refreshing! 

{STOP}

I pray that when you find yourself fighting off a bit of weariness, you will know what season you are in.  

If it is a pushing-through season, His peace will be your guide, His joy will be your strength, and His grace will get you through!  

If it is a rest-your-weary-heart season, His arms will pull you close, His love will fill you up and His Spirit will fall fresh on you again and again and again!

Linking up with Kate Motaung and the #fmfparty Community today.  Five Minute Fridays gives us the chance to dive right in and share what He puts on our hearts! Click here to read what others have to say about "WEARY"

The FMF lowdown: The gathering happens on Twitter on Thursday nights & then we write our hearts out & hit publish all over the interwebs on Thursday & Friday (& sometimes on Tuesdays!) It's where we encourage & uplift... where we share prayer requests & praise reports... where we talk food & friends & we find support & kindred hearts. It's where we are reminded that life is good & God is good & we're not alone... & then we all write for five minutes flat, a flash mob of wordsmiths letting our hearts & our fingers do the talking tapping & we hit publish before we can second guess it all away. 


We'd love to have you join us!

I am so thrilled to be returning to That Thing I Do Now on Saturdays, where I hook you up with some of my favorite reads from around the interwebs! 

Come back this weekend and I will announce the winner for the Dayspring Giveaway of Every Little Thing by Deidra Riggs and a gorgeous Everlasting Light "Shine" Necklace! Enter to win HERE.