I am weary, oh God. I am weary, oh God, and worn out.
– Proverbs 30:1
Does this proverb not feel appropriate in our lives? How many of us would say, “I’m tired? I’m weary. I’m exhausted.”
Proverbs 30:1 reminds us that God never grows weary like we do.
I think about so many mornings when in my time alone with God, my journal begins with something along these lines, and that’s first thing in the morning when I’m rested, just thinking about things happening in my life or things happening in my family, or things happening in the lives of people around me and the world around me. It’s exhausting. It’s wearying. I just find myself continually saying to God, “I am tired.” But that’s the beauty of Psalm 30:1, is the contrast between man, between you and me, and God. So the man declares, “I am weary, oh God. I am weary, oh God, and worn out.” This is part of the plight of humanity. We get tired. This is what it means for us to be human. We get exhausted and not just physically, emotionally, relationally. We get tired of challenges and trials… spiritually tired.
There are so many ways this plays out that we get tired, but the contrast here in Proverbs 30:1 makes clear God does not. God is never weary like we are weary. He is never worn out. God has all power. He’s omnipotent. All strength belongs to God, which is why then, so make the connection, Proverbs 30:1, man declares, “Oh God, I’m weary. Oh God, I’m worn out.” Because strength is found where? In God.
Proverbs 30:1 reminds us that in God there is strength for the weary.
There is strength for the weary in God, and that’s the word I want to just speak over so many today, who feel tired, any of you who feel exhausted in any way to hear God saying today, “I am not weary.” God saying, “I am not worn out.” God saying, “I have all strength and all power and I promise I will give you the strength you need as you look to me today.” God is saying that to you today. Come to him and say, “I’m weary. I’m worn out and I need your strength.” And God will give you the strength you need. This is Philippians 4:13.
2 Corinthians 12: He will be strength in our weakness. He will be our strength in our weariness as we look to him. Trust him. Confess our weariness to him and ask him for help. So let’s just do that right now. God, we are weary people. We have so many limits in our lives, and so often we find ourselves at the end of our limits. We’re tired, we’re exhausted in different ways with things happening in our lives, our families, and the lives of people we love around us, and we look at the world around us, looking at headlines is wearying in this world. Oh God, we’re tired physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, in so many different ways. God, we praise you as the one who possesses all strength. All power belongs to you. We praise you that you never grow weary.
This verse encourages us to plead with God for strength.
And so we pray, oh God, for your strength. We pray, oh God, for your strength in our weariness, for your strength in our weakness today. We pray for your power. Help us to live today, not based on our strength, but on your strength in us. Help us to, Philippians 4:13, do all things through Christ who strengthens us today. God, we praise you for making your strength available to us. Help us to live in it today. Help us to live in the power of your Holy Spirit, not in our own weakness.
Prayer for the Dongxiang People
And God, we pray for people who are weary around the world, who don’t know you as strength, who don’t know what it’s like to be able to do all things through Christ who strengthens them because they’ve never even heard of Christ. God, we pray for the Dongxiang people of China, for 636,000 of them, no known followers of Jesus. God, please change that. We pray that they might find strength and hope and help and salvation in Jesus.
God, we pray for the spread of the gospel to the Dongxiang people of China as we praise you for the good news that we know that there is strength in the weakness of this world that we experience that is always, always, always available in you. Help us to live in it today as weary people. We pray all this according to your word in Proverbs 30:1, which we love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
