As Christians, we are not immune to our human bodies. Our emotions are as loud as anyone else’s, and we can live in our thoughts just like anyone else who isn’t Christian. What differentiates us from other people is that our lives actually have a manual book of life, the Manual Book of Life that is the Word of God.
We don’t live as if we are lost sheep without a Shepherd. We don’t function as if we have to figure every single thing out ourselves, because our Heavenly Father already does that and has done it. We are different because we are equipped, helped, comforted, directed, led, and are being purified like gold in fire.
Yes, everything we encounter as belonging to Christ is a purifying fire, and if it’s not that, it’s being in His light.
“For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” – Hebrews 12:6 ESV
About Mental Exhaustion, Emotional Distress, and Spiritual Drought
What we find ourselves in and troubled by is a specific situation that the Holy Spirit has brought forth. It is a centre point of what we are being purified from.
And so when we find that we are mentally exhausted, and are conscious of this being problematic, we have not failed at being God’s children; we are demonstrating that as God’s children, we are being worked on by Him, even being aware of the specificities of His workings if we so choose to collaborate and partner with Him.
“for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” – Philippians 2:13 ESV
Partnering with God as He Works in Us
When we do not practice being in partnership with God as He personally works in us, then we might be sabotaging both Him and ourselves. Without self-awareness and introspection, we may be working against what God is trying to achieve within us, thereby grieving His Spirit and leaving us stuck in that place.
So the first thing we need to do to rid ourselves of mental exhaustion, as we are aware of being mentally exhausted, is to ensure that we are not working against ourselves and the Holy Spirit, because then how will we be removed from mental exhaustion and whatever else we may be suffering?
Deep rooted or even lightly rooted habits and practices do not just need to stop, they need to be cured, so much so that even if we one day remember we used to do them, we don’t default back into doing them. Their purpose in our lives needs to be rendered void. They need to know that they have no place in our lives, not now and certainly not in the future.
This is curing. Not a coping mechanism, not replacing with another “friendlier” habit, but completely making uninhabitable what is not of the Kingdom of God.
How Do I Get Rid of Mental Exhaustion?
Does it sound like I’m saying, “Leave it to the Holy Spirit”? because if so, then that is correct. But oh, how the pruning of the Holy Spirit does not go without effort and commitment on our end, and how His wringing out all that’s not off Him is a painful thing like wood turning into diamond because of the pressure and weight of the Earth.
He does the internal transformation, but we have to live in that transformation. We have to be aware of it. We have to have gotten to the end of that transformation with Him, because then it is evident we are aware of His internal work, not sabotaging either of us, and we are aware of a new reality within us pertaining to what was pruned from us.
I could give external factors on how to remove mental exhaustion, but that would be self-effort. We, as the Christian nation must learn how to be fully dependent on the Holy Spirit and learn furthermore how we are completely and utterly incapable of achieving anything without the Spirit of God. The world has drilled self-efficacy and self-dependence in the minds of mankind, and we were not immune to this conditioning.
We need to recognise this and live in this awareness daily. Yes, we need constant awareness of the influence of the world in our minds and hearts, because then we’ll recognise and simultaneously be aware of the need for the constant help of the Holy Spirit of Christ. One awareness demands nothing but constant awareness, and the other awareness demands that we do something about that awareness, and that is grow closer and deeper in intimacy with the Spirit.
How Do I Grow Closer to the Holy Spirit?
Even a brand-new Christian knows about the Bible. Even atheists and other religions know about the Bible. As even a new Christian, who has the Holy Spirit because you have become born again as you confessed the Lord Jesus and believed in Him in your heart, you know that the Bible is the Word of God, or the Bible is key in this Jesus Christ nation.
You also know that prayer is a thing you find yourself aware of needing to do. A part of you is aware of needing to read the Bible because indeed that’s where the Truth of God dwells, as well as the knowledge of self, and of all things.
I say this to say, even new Christians have an inherent baseline of what is essential in their walk in Christ. The only difference is between the Christians who will do these spiritual practices and those who will know of them too but not do them.
That very difference determines our depth of intimacy with the Holy Spirit. Of course, we also know to gather with other Christians in communion (go to [a Bible-based] church), to praise and worship, and to actually do what you read, because who reads a book to not be transformed by it even in the world? And so the Bible is not for merely reading, it is for doing.
Brethren, we cannot continue to rely on others to grow us closer to God because this is why we suffer. We suffer mental exhaustion, emotional turmoil, spiritual drought, and physical pain because we depend on others’ knowledge instead of growing in knowledge ourselves. And by knowledge, I only ever mean the Spirit of knowledge, who is the Spirit of God.
Knowledge is never anything the world can give you, but only what we can attain from the one who made all things.
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” – Hosea 4:6 ESV
If we do not live as children of God, how can God be our Father? If we do not belong to His Kingdom, then whose kingdom do we belong to? And if we do not resemble the Kingdom we say we belong to, then we are deceiving ourselves. If we are not pursuing an image that the Word of God reveals us to be, as the Word is our mirror, then what or whose image do we pursue? And will we be happy to be with them for all eternity? For, we are spirits, spirits are eternal, suffering death only through being away from the One who is the Life.
“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” – Ephesians 6:11-12 ESV
We know God does not sleep, unless He’s in a human body, which He was in for 33 years, 2026 years ago this day. But dear brethren, forget not that the devil does not sleep either. And it shouldn’t matter that the devil doesn’t sleep too, because:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” – Ephesians 1:3-14 ESV
May your mind be renewed, your faith be strengthened, and your peace be anchored in Christ, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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