Weary, Yet Pursuing

For anyone who has devoted their time and resources into any worthy cause, the experience can often times be undulating; periods of truimph and progress interspased with periods that are gruelling, requiring fortitude, patience and perseverance.

Other times it’s just the sheer exhaustion that comes with sustained pursuit and the consistency in intensity, focus and effort required to do and follow through on the path that God has called us to.

This sense of weariness is not unfamiliar to the believer. In a way, it reveals the frailty of our humanity, invariably showing the difficulty that comes with sustained pursuits.

Then Gideon and the 300 men who were with him came to the Jordan and crossed over, weary yet pursuing.

Judges 8:4 (KJV)

This is a familiar story.

It’s about Gideon and his 300 men who were chosen by God to execute the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Midianites.

Gideon and his men were doing the mandate of God, fighting the enemy. Victory was yet to be consolidated—and alas, weariness was setting in. I can imagine their bodies were aching, their minds were frayed, and they had every reason to stop, to call it a day.

But not these men. Total freedom was at stake, the promise of God was there to be entered into, they were on a mission from God. They were walking in purpose. They couldn’t afford to stop, and so scripture says, weary yet they pursued.

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Galatians 6:9 (KJV)

There’s a weariness that also comes from ‘awaiting’ expectations. Notice I didn’t say ‘delayed’ expectations, because from the standpoint of God, our harvest always comes in due season.

Our greatest challenge is that weariness can seep into souls, even as we do good and continue to do so with consistency, not knowing how and when the results will manifest, only knowing that as touching the word of God, in due season the results will show forth.

The point here is not to say that we shouldn’t rest or that we should work ourselves into the ground.

It’s rather to encourage us to persevere, to maintain focus and intensity in our pursuit of life and purpose, to not give in to that weariness that causes us to quit or abort mission.

Be encouraged: the results will come. Our profiting will appear. In due season we will reap, for the promises of God are sure and final.