Where Do We Go When Life Wears Us Out?
Matthew 11:28 – Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
What to Do When You Feel Exhausted as a Christian
If you have ever searched for what to do when you feel exhausted as a Christian, you already know the answer is not on a self-help shelf. So where do you turn when life knocks you flat?
Job knew that question well. He lost everything in chapters you can count on one hand. Possessions? Gone. Children? Buried. Health? Demolished.
His wife, drowning in her own ocean of grief, offered this comfort: “Curse God and die.” That’s despair talking in the dark.
Then came the friends. Oh, the friends. They showed up with their theology degrees and clipboard diagnoses. “You must have really messed up, Job. God doesn’t hand out this kind of suffering to good people.”
But they didn’t know Job’s heart. Nobody did.
Only Jesus knows your heart completely.
There’s an old hymn that asks, “Where could I go but to the Lord?” Another declares we’re “safe and secure from all alarms” when we’re leaning on those everlasting arms.
My favorite? “Learning to lean, learning to lean, learning to lean on Jesus.”
For $19.95, I could sell you a course on this. But I’ll give it to you free: Just lean. That’s it. That’s the whole course.
Job said it best in his darkest hour: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Translation? “Even if this kills me, I’m not letting go. And by the way, friends, God knows my heart even if you don’t.”
That’s trust without a roadmap.
Esther faced something similar. The law was crystal clear: approach the king uninvited, and you die. No exceptions. No second chances. Just death.
Mordecai told her to go anyway. To risk everything. To walk into that throne room without permission.
After three days of fasting and prayer, Esther sent word: “I will go to the king, even if it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”
That’s what surrender looks like.
Oswald Chambers put it this way: “Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.”
So don’t lean on what you can figure out. Don’t lean on what other people say—people who can’t see your heart, who don’t know your story, who weren’t there when Jesus whispered your name.
Lean on Him.
When exhaustion shows up wearing the mask of worry, my free 7-Day Worry Devotional walks you through scripture for the days you cannot fight your own thoughts. It is the same Matthew 11:28 invitation, slowed down enough to actually receive.
When everything falls apart, there’s still One who holds everything together. When the bottom drops out, there’s still a foundation that can’t be shaken.
Come to Jesus. Bring your heavy load. Bring your exhaustion. Bring your questions.
He’s got room for all of it.
And He’ll give you rest.
Keep Looking Up!
Heaven is closer than you think.
May God bless your day.
Related devotionals: Why God allows suffering · Come to Jesus and live (Matthew 11:28) · Free 7-Day Worry Devotional
Want more from Pastor Rodney?
If your soul feels parched, my book Make It Rain is a guide to spiritual renewal when the well has run dry. Sometimes exhaustion is not a sign to push harder. It is an invitation to ask God for rain.
If today’s devotional spoke to your heart, my books carry these same themes deeper. Stories of God moving in ordinary lives, scripture for tired pastors and weary parents, and steady reminders that heaven is closer than you think.