"A Cure For a Wavering Faith and Weariness"

Do you ever have days, or even weeks, when you feel like you can’t catch a break? Where you feel like Satan has his best defensive players lined up against you?  Do you have things you’ve prayed about so earnestly to God for years, yet you've seen no results?  I can answer yes to all of these things, and unfortunately, I can’t say that I didn’t become weary, and in turn, my weariness allowed my faith to waver.  Thankfully I have found, through my struggling and weariness, that I serve a God who “fainteth not, neither is weary” (Isaiah 40:28) and who, if we look to Him and put our trust in him fully, “shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and NOT BE WEARY; and they shall walk, and NOT FAINT” (Isaiah 40:30). Just as Ruth found rest and help in Boaz, her kinsman redeemer and a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is where we can find help for our weariness.  

“And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been showed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore. The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.” (Ruth 2:11-12).  

There is so much help for the weary Christian in these verses. First, we see that Boaz saw everything about Ruth, just as God sees and knows everything about us.  He sees us on our mountain tops and he sees us when we walk through our darkest and deepest valleys.  One of my favorite names for the Lord in the Bible is “Thou God seest me” (Genesis 16:13). This is the name Hagar gives to the Lord as He visits her at the well when she runs away after becoming pregnant with Ishmael. How awesome that we serve a God who sees us all, even a servant who had no personal relationship with Him but only knew about the God whom Abram and Sarai spoke about. What a merciful and powerful God He is!  

Next, we see her work will be recompensed and a full reward will be given. When you look up recompense in the Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, it means “to make return of an equivalent for anything given, done, or suffered.”  Even though we are unworthy of the free gift of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ’s blood that he shed on Calvary, He gives EVEN MORE by promising “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Galatians 6:9).  

Lastly, Boaz tells Ruth the reward comes from “the LORD God...whose wings thou art come to trust” (Ruth 2:12).  The Bible tells us that Gideon was faint as he pursued the Midianites, and Eleazar's hand was described as weary while fighting the Philistines, yet both of these men were "mighty men" in the sight of God. Although they were faint in their bodies and minds, they both remembered everything that God had done for them throughout their lives and what they had witnessed God do for others. In their remembrance, Gideon defeated the Midianites, and Eleazar’s “hand clave unto the sword” as he defeated the Philistines.  In our weakest moments and our darkest valleys, when we feel faint and we want to give up, may we always remember the cure for weariness and a wavering faith is to remember everything that God had done for them throughout their lives and what they had witnessed God do for others. In their remembrance, Gideon defeated the Midianites, and Eleazar’s “hand clave unto the sword” as he defeated the Philistines.  In our weakest moments and our darkest valleys, when we feel faint, and we want to give up, may we always remember the cure for weariness, and a wavering faith is to remember everything the Lord has done for us.

We know that suffering will come, hard times will come but we also know that we serve a God who promises to strengthen and settle us, a God who sees us, a God who promises blessings to those who love and serve him, and a God who will cleave our hand to the sword so that we can carry on for him even when we feel like we can’t.  Just remember what a mighty GOD we serve!