When the tank is empty
| My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalms73:26) |
If one reads the whole Psalm, there is the clear impression that the Psalmist has experienced a significant faith-crisis. This has probably been accompanied by physical exhaustion, mental overload and spiritual depletion.
One gets to understand the extent of his ordeal in verse 16. He says: "When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me!"
We've all been there to one extent or another... He's reached breaking point - he's had enough!
But then the turning point comes: "till I entered the sanctuary of God..."
It's in worship, in contemplating God and seeing the bigger picture that the Psalmist finds peace, strength and hope. This leads him to the significant and beautiful conclusion: "Even if my own strength and courage fails, God will sustain and nourish me."
As many of you know, the last three years have been very challenging for our family and for me as a pastor. There has been a lot of heartache and loss - a lot of strain and stress - and very little opportunity for replenishment in the form of long breaks or holidays. But I have discovered that God gives strength when we are weary. He sustains, He replenishes and He renews.
This doesn't mean that we recklessly empty our tanks and take no responsibility for refilling them, but when our tanks are legitimately empty and we find ourselves stretched thin - God is the strength of our hearts and our portion forever!
