SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to the Spray United Methodist Church podcast.
SPEAKER_00: I'm Hoyt, and I'm so glad you're here.
SPEAKER_00: There is a kind of tiredness that a good night's sleep cannot cure.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the body is tired and we know that we need rest.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes the tiredness goes deeper.
SPEAKER_00: You still believe in God, you still love Jesus, yet prayer requires more effort.
SPEAKER_00: Worship feels distant, and words that once came from the heart begin to only come from the mouth.
SPEAKER_00: That is what I mean when I speak about a tired soul.
SPEAKER_00: It can happen even while we are doing all the things we believe a Christian ought to do.
SPEAKER_00: We attend worship, we read scripture, we pray before meals, we serve other people.
SPEAKER_00: From the outside, everything may look normal, yet inside we may feel as though we were walking through deep mud.
SPEAKER_00: Every spiritual step seems to require more strength than it used to.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we feel guilty about that weariness.
SPEAKER_00: We think a faithful Christian should always feel joyful, eager, and spiritually strong.
SPEAKER_00: But scripture never pretends that God's people are untouched by exhaustion.
SPEAKER_00: The Psalms contained prayers from people who felt discouraged, overwhelmed, and distant from God.
SPEAKER_00: They did not hide their condition from Him.
SPEAKER_00: They brought it into His presence.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian life requires effort and obedience matters.
SPEAKER_00: But when the soul grows tired, we can confuse faithfulness with performance.
SPEAKER_00: We begin acting as though communion with God depends upon saying the right words, feeling the right emotions, and doing everything well enough.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we want to live in a manner that pleases God.
SPEAKER_00: We want our choices, words, and conduct to honor Him.
SPEAKER_00: But we must remember why we obey.
SPEAKER_00: We do not obey so that God will finally decide to love us.
SPEAKER_00: We obey because in Jesus Christ God has already shown his love for us.
SPEAKER_00: Our relationship with God rests upon grace.
SPEAKER_00: We come through Jesus Christ even when our hearts feel tired and our prayers feel weak.
SPEAKER_00: I have experienced this with something as familiar as the Apostles' Creed.
SPEAKER_00: For years I could recite the creed from memory and say every word correctly.
SPEAKER_00: But familiarity can allow the mouth to continue while the heart stops paying attention.
SPEAKER_00: That can happen with many parts of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: We can say the Lord's Prayer without thinking about what it means for God's kingdom to come.
SPEAKER_00: We can sing a hymn while our mind is somewhere else.
SPEAKER_00: We can hear a familiar Bible verse and assume that, because we recognize the words, we have received everything God may want to show us through them.
SPEAKER_00: This does not mean that those prayers, hymns, or passages have become empty.
SPEAKER_00: It means that we have become tired, distracted, or overly familiar with them.
SPEAKER_00: The treasure is still there, but we may have stopped looking closely.
SPEAKER_00: Now that changed when I began researching the creed for this podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We slowed down and examined each phrase through Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: I believe in God the Father Almighty was no longer simply an opening line.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, became a confession about the one who saves us.
SPEAKER_00: The forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting became promises filled with hope.
SPEAKER_00: As I studied, I began to understand that the creed is not merely a list of doctrines Christians are expected to memorize.
SPEAKER_00: It tells the story of the God who created us, the Son who came to serve us, and the Holy Spirit who remains at work among us.
SPEAKER_00: It carries us from creation through the cross and resurrection and towards the promise of everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: The creed had not changed.
SPEAKER_00: The truth, the truth had not lost its power.
SPEAKER_00: I had simply begun listening again.
SPEAKER_00: That experience taught me something important.
SPEAKER_00: A tired soul does not always need something new.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it needs to see an old truth with fresh attention.
SPEAKER_00: We often assume that spiritual tiredness requires a new book, a new method, or some dramatic experience.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes God leads us back to truths we have known for years.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the words, the Lord is my shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: Many of us have heard Psalms 23 since childhood.
SPEAKER_00: Because it is so familiar, we may move over it quickly.
SPEAKER_00: But when your soul is tired, stop after those five words.
SPEAKER_00: If the Lord is your shepherd, then you are not wandering through life unseen.
SPEAKER_00: You belong to Him.
SPEAKER_00: And He has not abandoned His care for you.
SPEAKER_00: Or consider the simple confession, Jesus Christ is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That means our weariness is not Lord, our fear is not Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Our circumstances do not have the final word.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus does.
SPEAKER_00: The one who died for us and rose again remains Lord even on the days when we feel very little.
SPEAKER_00: God is our Father.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Our sins can be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is risen.
SPEAKER_00: We are not alone.
SPEAKER_00: These truths are familiar but never ordinary.
SPEAKER_00: A weary heart may need to slow down and hear one familiar promise as though it matters today.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says in Matthew 11 28, Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: He does not say, make yourself feel spiritual again and then come to me.
SPEAKER_00: He does not say find better words and then come.
SPEAKER_00: He says simply, Come to me.
SPEAKER_00: We come with distracted thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: We come with prayers that sound mechanical.
SPEAKER_00: We come with a heart that may not feel what the mouth is saying.
SPEAKER_00: We come because Christ is our rest.
SPEAKER_00: Rest in Christ does not always mean that every burden immediately disappears.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes His rest is the assurance that we do not carry the burden by ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it is enough strength for the next strep.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it is a quiet reminder that our salvation rests in what Christ has done, not in how energetic or inspired we feel today.
SPEAKER_00: If your soul is tired, begin honestly.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I am saying the words, but my heart feels far away.
SPEAKER_00: Help me hear them again.
SPEAKER_00: That is not a failed prayer.
SPEAKER_00: It is an honest prayer.
SPEAKER_00: God is not impressed by religious words that conceal what is truly happening within us.
SPEAKER_00: He already knows our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Honest prayer opens the door for us to stop pretending and to receive His mercy where we actually are.
SPEAKER_00: Then stay with one familiar truth.
SPEAKER_00: Read one verse slowly.
SPEAKER_00: Pray one line of the Lord's Prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Take one statement from the creed and ask what it reveals about Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Give your heart time to catch up with your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: You might choose the words our Father, say them slowly.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that you are speaking to the God who knows you and welcomes you as his child.
SPEAKER_00: Or choose the words the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that the failure you confessed is not stronger than the mercy of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Or simply say, He is risen.
SPEAKER_00: Let that old truth remind you that no darkness, not even death itself, has defeated Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Do not try to force a feeling.
SPEAKER_00: Our faith is not made true by the strength of our emotions.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, place your detention upon what is true and allow that truth to rest before God.
SPEAKER_00: Feelings may return quickly, or they may not.
SPEAKER_00: Either way, Christ remains faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8 reminds us that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness and intercedes for us when we do not know what to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Even when our words are weak, we are not praying alone.
SPEAKER_00: That is the great comfort.
SPEAKER_00: The effectiveness of prayer does not depend upon our ability to produce beautiful sentences.
SPEAKER_00: A sigh offered to God can be a prayer.
SPEAKER_00: A whispered help me can be a prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Sitting quietly before the Lord when no words will come can also be an act of faith.
SPEAKER_00: There are days when faithfulness feels strong and joyful.
SPEAKER_00: There are other days when faithfulness means quietly returning to Jesus with very little strength.
SPEAKER_00: God is present in both kind of days.
SPEAKER_00: A tired soul is not a faithless soul, and it is not a forgotten soul.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it simply needs to rest in grace and hear an old truth again.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, you know when our bodies are tired and when the weariness has reached our souls.
SPEAKER_00: You also know that when our mouth continues praying while our hearts struggle to pay attention.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us when we treat communion with you as something we must earn.
SPEAKER_00: Remind us that we come through the grace of Jesus Christ, not through perfect words or perfect performance.
SPEAKER_00: Take the truths we have heard many times and help us receive them with fresh attention.
SPEAKER_00: Remind us that you are our Father, that Jesus is Lord, that our sins can be forgiven, that Christ is risen, and that we are never alone.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, thank you for inviting the weary and burdened to come to you.
SPEAKER_00: Give rest to every tired soul listening today and help us take the next faithful step.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in your holy name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for spending these few minutes with me on the Spray UMC Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a church home, we'd love to invite you to worship with us in person.
SPEAKER_00: Our Sunday service is at 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: at Spray United Methodist Church in Eden, North Carolina.
SPEAKER_00: We are a loving church that loves God and loves people.
SPEAKER_00: All people.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, new podcast episodes come out every Friday.
SPEAKER_00: Until next time, may the grace of God rise before you and keep you safe.
SPEAKER_00: Goodbye.