Weariness, Spiritual Battles, & Staying Vigilant

Are you feeling a little weary? Galatians 6:9 reminds us not to give up. This episode will give you not just encouragement to keep going when things get tough, but some practical advice from the trenches.

Transcript

Amber Pike (00:00.948)
Welcome back to the Kidmin Huddle. Hey, are you feeling a little bit weary? I have been feeling a little weary in ministry, maybe in life. I mean, it is summertime. If you're watching this episode, listening to it when it was freshly recorded, it's nearing the end of summer. We've got about a month left, but for a lot of us in the ministry world, we've already done camp, we've already done VBS, we've been trying to maximize summer with our family.

and then if you are like me, you are battling sickness during that because you're around all these extra germs. And I've been feeling weary. Maybe this is you. And as I was going through this couple of days of just really feeling weary, like calling it what it is, I'm feeling weary. I had a couple of reminders, and it was just kind of funny because it's been a hard year for me. Just spiritually, there have been a lot of spiritual attacks in my family and

A lot of sickness, nothing major, just like I have a horrible immunity and I catch all the germs and then I'm sick for so long and then I get it sick again because my immunity was worn down and it's taken its toll on me this year. And for Mother's Day, I made this verse. If you're watching it, it's it's adorable. And I sent this home for the moms, and it's Galatians six nine, let us not grow weary of doing good. For in due season we will reap if we do not go up. And my friends, I needed

this reminder recently. And I'm gonna guess someone listening to it, this podcast needs that reminder too. It was VBS week for me last week and I was feeling that weariness. I was feeling like, what's the point? What's the point in me going week after week, giving my all, wearing myself out because I mean church leadership isn't on board or this is happening or that is happening. Do I need to be doing this anymore? And

My 15-year-old, ooh, I wish you could have heard it. It was one of those moments. I wish I had it recorded because it was amazing. And I I was. I was the day VBS was starting. Full transparency here, friends. I'm I'm real and I'm authentic and I'm sharing the struggle with you. I was sitting there hours before VBS was starting, and I'm telling my family, I'm like, I feel weary. There are attacks happening and things.

Amber Pike (02:23.17)
You know, when when you're in charge, but people don't know that you're in charge or care that you're in charge or they do what they want to do, and you're just like, and I'm questioning, I'm like, do I keep doing this? And my son preaches his first sermon at me. And he starts telling me of all the people in the Bible who sometimes they were the only one.

Nehemiah was the only one and he built the wall. Or the time Elijah was literally the only one following God and he stood and he showed that God is God. And Reed just keeps pointing out to me these men, amazing men in the Bible, who stood, but they didn't stand alone because God was with them.

If you're seeing this, you're you're saying I'm already starting to cry. You might hear it in my voice. Then my 15-year-old tells me he's like, so you're gonna keep going. He's like, you're gonna do VBS, even if you're the only one who cares. And you're gonna do it again next year. And you're gonna show up every week for these kids because, mom, eternities are at stake.

My friend, if you are feeling weary, you're not alone, but you're gonna keep going. You are gonna keep going. You're gonna show up week after week, even if the pastor doesn't support you or your team is driving you bonkers, or if your parents are lukewarm, you are gonna keep showing up, my friend. Because eternities are at stake. Do not give up.

Do not grow weary doing good, because in due season.

Amber Pike (04:03.352)
God will do the harvest. We are called to plant the seeds, to be faithful to what God has given us and leave it up to God. My friend, do not give up. For what is it, 182 episodes now? I end my podcast saying, remember, friends, what you do matters. I picked that phrase on purpose. It's intentional. It's not just the same fun way to end it. My friends, what you do, it matters.

Ephesians 6 tells us of the spiritual battle that is raging. Gotta wipe my tears here. There is a spiritual battle happening. We are not battling against flesh and blood, but against the forces of the evil one. And Satan is after our kids.

And he's after the ministries or the ministry leaders who are teaching them God's truths. So of course he wants you feeling weary. Now I'm not giving him credit that maybe he's not due, but his desire for sure would be you to feel weary and ready to give up. He wants you to feel distracted. He wants there to be dissension and discouragement. He loves those things because that means your focus is not where it needs to be.

But like we're told in Ephesians, like we're told in Second Peter, we need to stay vigilant. This battle is happening and we are soldiers. I've I love this. I wasn't planning on sharing it, not on my notes, but it needs to be shared. I think it's Josh Howarton. There's a video clip of him, and he is talking about how we view the church. And so many people view the church as a cruise ship. You go in and you

Pick your dessert and pick your entertainment and you go for you. What can the church do for me? What am I getting out of the church? My friends, it is not a cruise ship. The church is a battleship. So arm your stations. We are in a battle and we need to be armed and ready to fight. God called you into ministry, whatever capacity you're serving at, God has called you. And you might feel weary for a day, you might be like Elijah.

Amber Pike (06:20.384)
Ready to give up, my friend. Maybe you need a snack and a nap. Those two things actually make a huge difference. Don't quit the fight.

Do not grow weary. Do not give up. So practically, how can we stay vigilant in this fight? One, you need to be protecting yourself. So armor up, my friend. We are given all of these defensive pieces of armor. The shield of or the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth. Armor up every day, my friend, because the attacks are going to come.

So you need to be praying. You need to be spending time in God's word. There are, as a ministry leader, so many lies that you are going to hear. You know, Satan, the Prince of Lies, and he is going to spread lies to you that you're not good enough, that you're not called, you're not effective, you're not doing the as good a job as the church down the street. You need to stop those lies with the truth. God has called you. You have worth. You have value. You are dearly loved. Whatever the lie is, go find God's truth.

To that. Shut out those lies. Armor up. Protect yourself, you, the ministry leader. If you are distracted, if you are discouraged, you're not being as effective as you need to be. So stop those lies. Now I say this as someone who frequently gets discouraged in my ministry, in my calling. I think I joke. Every time I have the biggest sphere of influence. So

Before a really big conference when I'm speaking in front of hundreds or thousands of people, Satan likes to attack me. And it's usually discouragement. you know, someone will say something like super mean about something that I've done. They'll be like, Well, this is the worst thing that's ever been written. This woman has no no no business writing. And I'll be my gosh, I am, I'm terrible. I don't know why I fall for the lies, but I do. and it it gets me distracted. And I say, I wish Satan would pick on somebody else.

Amber Pike (08:27.214)
Because I'm tired of it, like season after season. And then I stop myself and I'm like, no, I don't, because I know he's not gonna stop me. He might make me cry. I might get discouraged. I might get down for a day or two. And then I'm gonna pick myself up by the bootstraps and keep going. I am thankfully, very slowly getting wiser. And I'm starting to recognize those lies when I start to move into that discouragement.

And I'm trying to stop it. Now I wasn't as successful during VBS season stopping that discouragement. I I fell in the I fell in that trap until my son gave me a talking two. But I was also overly tired. I wasn't taking care of myself physically because during VBS, I don't know that you can, right? It's exhausting. the whole right side of my body hurt. I didn't stop the lies. But we need to. We need to armor up. We need to protect ourselves as a ministry leader.

Staying connected to the vine, abiding in Christ. We can't produce fruit apart from it. So prayer, Bible reading, we can't neglect those things no matter how busy times are. Number two, we need to protect our family. Because if he can't get to you, the enemy is going to try to go attack your family, including your kids. So pray. Pray over your family. Pray with your family. Keep your family connected to Scripture. I know as a parent during summer.

During VBS during camp, it is hard to stay consistent in our own family discipleship rhythms. We didn't do Bible reading as a family during VBS week. Now we got it at VBS, but by the time we got home and I got something to eat, and the kids like calmed down from all the sugar they ate at VBS, I'm done. It's bedtime. Let's go. Get back on it. If you have a week like that where you had all the church things and you've

Not been consistent with family discipleship, jump right back in. Don't neglect those things. We have to protect our family. Same thing. If we're hearing the lies as a family, what does God's truth say? Say, we have to protect ourselves. Armor up, friends. We're warned in Ephesians there is a battle. Here's what we do: we stand firm with that armor of God. We got to know God's truths. So we're protecting ourselves. We're protecting our family. Well, we need to protect our ministry too.

Amber Pike (10:45.11)
you you probably cannot guess my first point that I'm gonna say, right? You're you have no idea that I'm gonna say pray, because if the first way that we're armoring up ourselves is prayer, the first way that we're protecting our family is prayer. Absolutely the first way we are protecting our church is prayer. During VBS week, it just felt so heavy. There were so many problems. Not the kids, like normal kid problems, you know, they're they're chatty. I got that. But there were so many other problems.

I went one day. So we have Sanctuary Building and then we have Fellowship Hall Building and we're in both build buildings during VBS. I went one day and I prayer walked all the way around them like arms out, Southern Baptist girl, right? So and I'm prayer walking around these buildings.

Because I knew important stuff was happening. There wouldn't have been so many problems at BBS if important stuff weren't happening. So I was praying. Now that shouldn't be a, no, I'm only praying when bad stuff is happening. No, we should constantly, before the bad stuff, during it, after it, we should be covering our ministries, our kids, our families in prayer. We need to also be watchful as we're protecting our ministry. What's slipping in? Is there any secularism?

Slipping in is the curriculum that we're using, is it standing on the truth of God's word or has it compromised? We need to be watching for those things. We need to be mindful of our volunteers. Are our volunteers standing on the authority of the word of God, or is there compromise happening? We're gatekeepers. We need to make sure that we are watching, protecting, we are vigilant for the spiritual battle because we are teaching boys and girls the truths of God's word. We are teaching them how to stand on these truths.

We are not letting compromise in. Similarly, we are not letting any weak sauce in. We cannot prepare our kids for battle if we have this Bible-like, attractional entertainment, fluffin' stuffed ministry style. It is not going to cut it. We want to see resilient boys and girls who have a lifelong faith in Christ, who are like the wise man who built his house on the rocks and win the wind.

Amber Pike (13:00.162)
blows and the waves crash when the enemy comes at these kids with the his lies, they know how to stand because we've been preparing them for battle.

Just teaching them Bible stories isn't gonna cut it. They need to know the truths of God's word. How do we know that that's true? How do they use those truths? I think we have failed in the application part of faith. They might know the stories, but they do, do they know how to live it out? Are we showing them how to combat the lies of the enemy by using scripture? Jesus did it? Are we showing them, leading them, teaching them how to do that? We have to.

There is a battle raging, and we have to be vigilant, be on our guard, be teaching these kids how to stand firm in this battle. We have to be intentional. We cannot leave it to chance. So that's the protection that we need to be doing. This is the the the proactive and sometimes reactive.

But what if you are weary? What steps could you take if you were feeling weary? Well, I'm I'm hoping that some of the passion that you are hearing or seeing from this is is catching to you because that was a wake up for me. And I like I teach on it, friends, like my book, Intentional Children's Ministry, it's the purpose of it. I know that eternities matter. I put that in my breakouts, all the things, but I needed a sweet little 15-year-old to remind me.

That eternities are at stake for these boys and girls. So it doesn't matter if I'm tired. I know where God has placed me. So have a nap, get a snack, and get to work. Maybe you need a reset. Maybe you need to use that vacation time that you have. Honor that Sabbath. You should not be working seven days a week. And if you are like me.

Amber Pike (15:05.388)
Where you have a full-time job and then you're doing church. I get it, friends. Like sometimes it's the nooks and crannies where we're we're doing the things. I am a homeschooling mom who works a full-time job and volunteers to be in charge at church. I get it, friend. But we have to take that time off or we're gonna burn out and you're gonna feel real weary. We need to be prioritizing our health. Sleep is amazing.

God designed sleep for a reason, but sleep can also be one of the first things that goes. We don't have time, we're up late working, or we're up early, or your brain even subconsciously is focusing on the thing, so you're not sleeping well, or because you've been so exerting yourself physically. If you're nearing 40 like me, you have the aches and pains are waking you up through the night. But we need to prioritize sleep. That's when our body rests and heals, and sometimes we get the answers to the problems we need because our brain can still work while we're sleeping.

We need to be making sure that we're fueling ourselves well, that we're drinking more than just coffee. We need actual water. I have found, just practical side note, I have found a big difference in when I'm doing a hydration packet. I get these really healthy ish ones from Walmart. And it's basically like salt water. It's like flavored salt water, but it's replacing some of the electrolytes. Whenever I get really sick, I dehydrate really fast. Sometimes end up

Go into the hospital despite the fact that I'm drinking, but I'm drinking the wrong things. And sometimes when I'm just feeling physically weak, like I need to do a hydration pack and then I feel a little better. So hey, maybe that's what you need. You need to replace some electrolytes. There is scientific proof in a McDonald's Coke. I swear. Replace replace some electrolytes. Be taking vitamins, the supplements that you need to be healthy, eating healthy fruits and vegetables, protein. I'm pretty bad about proteining.

Especially in the mornings. I'm kind of just a coffee's fine, but I know that's not the best for my body. It's not the best for my brain. So I'm trying to be very intentional. You know, that looks like sometimes boiling a bunch of eggs before a busy week, even though I don't love boiled eggs. I have to put so much pepper on them. The texture bothers me. so I put so much pepper that my lips are tingling, like a lot of pepper. But I know it's good for me, it's good for my brain, it's protein. Do it. Do the things.

Amber Pike (17:29.314)
The exercise, go take a walk in the sunshine. Sunshine is great for you. Nature is so good. Move your body. Even if it's just a 10-minute walk, those things are great for you. Maybe you need to gather your thoughts. I've not like gotten into, but I've started journaling this year just as a brain dump release. I had all these thoughts floating around here, and they just kind of need to come out sometimes.

Maybe that's gonna be helpful for you. Maybe prayer journaling. Talk to God. Talk to Him in prayer and just let it all out. Maybe you need to do some dreaming planning on paper, organizing, organizing your space if your house or your office is really messy, your brain feels messy, and it adds to all that. Clean your space. Take a day, couple days, clean everything. How can you get this reset? Is it sitting? Is it planning? Is it taking some time off?

Do you need a friend that's gonna encourage you? I can loan out my 15-year-old. if you need a really impassioned, this is why this matters. But I have voices in my life that I go to when I need encouragement or when I need prayer. Maybe you need a voice like that as well.

Amber Pike (18:45.122)
The battle is raging. It is real. We don't always know what's happening in the spiritual realm. We don't know behind the scenes. So why was my VBS week a hard week? Why were there so many problems? adult side of things, not the kids. Well, I'm choosing to believe because amazing kingdom things were happening. Now we did not see any salvations, but I have faith that things were happening.

That seeds were being planted, that kingdom work was happening, and thus the enemy didn't want it to happen. Now I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, amazing things did happen because all of our kids committed scripture to memory. By the end of the week, they have Psalm 23 memorized. My friends, that is such an amazing important passage. The reminder that God is always with them, that when life is rough, he will be their comfort.

That he will protect them, that even in the valley of the shadow of death, they don't need to fear evil because he is with them.

What important reminder for those kids. They heard God's truths. So was every single struggle of VBS week worth it? Absolutely, because these kids heard what they needed to hear. I putting my faith not in my ability to entertain magic trick, teach amazing truths. No, I have confidence in God that He makes sure that people hear what they need to hear for the kingdom.

If you are feeling weary, my friends, let this be the reminder that you need. What you're doing matters. You are loving on these boys and girls with the love of Jesus. You are pouring truths into them. You are standing on the authority of the word. It matters. It might not be easy. It might be really hard or discouraging or frustrating, but it's important. Hey, I want to make an offer to you. If you

Amber Pike (20:51.754)
Are just really struggling. Will you message me your address? I these verses from time to time. I print them out. I want to send you this reminder because it's just kind of funny how I planned this months ago and then I needed this reminder. Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. My friends, do not give up. If there's someone who feels like quitting ministry because it's not going well or it's hard, please don't give up. Don't grow weary.

Because God is doing what God is doing. So if this is you, message me. You can find me on on social media, Amber Pike, Intentional Kidman, API at renewation.org. Go to amberpike.org. You can find me, contact me through there, send me your address, and I'm gonna send you some happy mail with a reminder because

Eternities are at stake, friends. We cannot give up.

We might feel tired, we might feel weary, but we can't give up.

Amber Pike (21:56.312)
I don't want you to give up either. We are we are kingdom partners fighting this fight. Take a nap, have a snack. But remember, my friends, what you're doing matters.