A missionary friend, weary from too much work, once said to me, “It’s no sin to be tired.” It’s always stuck with me and it comes to mind again this morning, as I feel emotionally and physically drained from stresses I’m not at liberty to disclose. I’m tempted to all kinds of sin in this weakness, especially sins of self-punishment: (What’s wrong with you? Where’s your faith?).

But I have learned the tiredness itself is not sin, nor is the temptation. I’m grateful to let myself be tired today and I hope, in his power, to resist the temptation to self-punishment.

Are you, too, tired? Let’s present ourselves to God together.

Father, we come to you in weakness and temptation. Please soothe our hearts and give us your rest. Bring your encouragement and your power to resist the temptation to punish ourselves. Please show us your solutions to the challenges of our lives.

When I began, twenty years ago, to do psychotherapy, many times I felt like giving up —I was afraid I couldn’t receive that promised land I believed God wanted to give me. But I learned that fear itself was the enemy. The more I attacked the fear, in the power of the Holy Spirit, the weaker it got, until I began to live comfortably in that particular Canaan.

Winston Churchill, when England was under attack from Hitler, famously said, "Never, never, never, never, never never, never, never give up." Be active rather than passive. Even if the fears are assaulting us like bombs in the night, don’t lie down and let them win.

Some of us are in obvious spiritual battles right now. If we are not feeling attacked now, we have felt the barrage in the past and we will fight again. Fear, like I wrestled with as a psychotherapy beginner, is a common weapon the enemy wields. Let’s recognize when we are fighting fear and let’s never give up.