This afternoon I had the privilege to spend a few minutes with some of our staff and faculty at Crown Southwest in Fort Worth, Texas.  I thank God for Christian workers who are diligently seeking to pass God’s Word and work on to another generation.  I shared a simple thought with them that has been a great encouragement to me.  The best workers get tired.  Jesus did.  In His perfect humanity, He still grew weary.

John 4:5 tells us that “Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.”  In the middle of the day, in the middle of the work, Jesus grew weary.

Weariness is a part of life and labor.  Until we get to Heaven there is no way to escape it.  In our escapist world, entertainment and a thousand other things have become the means of running from weariness.  But that is no remedy.  We should deal with weariness as Jesus did.

1.  Sit down.

We pride ourselves in our work, in how much we can get done and how quickly!  There is a time to sit down.  The body needs rest.  The mind needs reprieve.  The soul needs refreshed.  Even Jesus said to His disciples in one place, “Come apart and rest awhile.”  Vance Havner said in commenting on this passage: “If you don’t come apart, you will come apart.”

Watch how tenderly God dealt with His exhausted prophet, Elijah in 1 Kings 19.  Rest.  Eat.  Spend time in a quiet place and allow the still, small voice of God to renew your strength.  Remember that God has made a way “run and not be weary” if you take time to wait on Him (Isaiah 40:31).

2.  Minister to someone else.

When Jesus sat on that well it was not just for Himself.  He had a divine appointment with a needy woman.  Nothing refreshes the soul like sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.  Find a  lost person or a hurting individual and tell them what Jesus has done for you!  New strength will come.  “The joy of the Lord shall be your strength.”

It is significant that some of our Lord’s greatest recorded ministry takes place as He is weary.  An entire city is to be turned to Him.  His disciples are about to learn some of the greatest lessons they will ever learn.  And all of this happened not after the weariness passed, but while our Lord was weary.

God delights in doing His greatest work in our weariness, because it is then that we lean on Him.  When all of our resources have been spent, divine aid comes.

“And he must needs go through Samaria.”

You must have times of weariness.  You must keep working through them.

“And let us not be not weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9).