Spiritual Warfare

 

“Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap”, Rex Gutwein, a Biblical Prof. had changed my life with those words. I needed to hear them desperately the day he uttered them. I was running on absolute empty and those around me were starting to suffer the consequences of my sleep deprived irritation. They were words that gave me permission to stop for a min. and rest.

                Fast forward fifteen years into the future, and I shared my teacher’s wisdom on the internet. I was immediately hit with comments about how a nap cannot be spiritual. I was told that was encouraging laziness. I also was told more than once that psychology had crept into the church. I was shocked to read the comments. I did not see why anyone was against such a benign comment, or how they had read psych dependance into it.

                Then I remembered that not everyone is as engaged in the fight. Not everyone has poured hours into others, or prayed at sick bedsides, or written the entire curriculum for the youth program that week. Not everyone has been holding the church and missionaries and broken people up to the Father all week. Some do not need a “nap”, because they didn’t just fight a war. Maybe I have lost you with my thought on this one, if that is the case hopefully, I can explain while backing my case with scripture.

                Kings 18 holds the encounter the prophet Elijah had with the false prophets of Baal. Elijah, alone, goes up against four hundred prophets of Baal, while claiming to be the last prophet God has standing. He challenges the false prophets and their false god to a test, to establish who would be the true God. His challenge is amazing. God shows up and totally backs Elijah. On that mountain top everyone there turns back to God, and all four hundred false prophets are destroyed. It was without a doubt one of the biggest victories over evil a prophet ever had in the Old Testament. However, the very next day the queen threatens Elijah and we find him running scared. He runs several days’ journey into the wilderness and sits down alone to mope. He tells God that he was the only person God still had serving him and is depressed to the point of asking the Lord to take his life. What a shock to go from massive victory to depression.

                What is God’s response? In I Kings 19: 5 and 6, it says, “he (Elijah) lay down and slept”, and “he then went back to sleep”. I Kings 19: 5,6, and 7 has three times that God tells Elijah to “Get up and eat something”.  In other words, God has Elijah take a nap and get a snack. Elijah was just in a spiritual war, he is spent, he has nothing left, and God says, “let’s take care of your physical needs”. You can reach a point in your ministering that your body is just exhausted and needs precious rest. Later God does remind Elijah that “I have seven thousand people who have not bowed to Baal”. God does not leave him in his depressed state, he tells Elijah the truth, Elijah is not alone, it just felt like it after such a spiritual battle.

                Today I was reading a post by Ryan Frank on a KidzMatters page. I would like to share his thoughts.

                “Why does Monday feel so heavy? Sunday takes everything out of you. You lead, teach, solve problems, pray with people, calm tensions, and carry spiritual weight for hours. You show up energized and present—even is you were already tired. Then Monday comes, and the adrenaline disappears. What felt powerful yesterday can feel empty today. The emotional rush is real. Your body has been running on responsibility and momentum. When that slows down, fatigue sets in fast. It is not weakness; it is psychology and leadership weight colliding. You gave a lot. Monday can bring silence. No music. No momentum. No visible wins. Just inboxes, follow-up tasks, and unfinished details. The contrast between Sunday’s energy and Monday stillness can feel discouraging. Sometimes the crash whispers lies, “It wasn’t enough”. “You should have done more”. “No one even noticed”. But exhaustion distorts perspective. Don’t evaluate your calling when you’re depleted. Instead of pushing through, give yourself permission to recover. Rest is not laziness, it’s stewardship. Celebrate what God did, even if you do not see the fruit yet. Monday isn’t proof you failed. It is proof you poured out”.

                I was so encouraged to read these words he wrote because I realized, like Elijah, I am not alone in my feelings. God has many people out there who understand the drain and exhaustion that comes from spiritual work. If this is you take your nap, eat your snack, and let God speak truth to you. You are not alone, it is a battle, and God is going to win it. He does not need you to fight but amazingly he is including you and a host of other people in his plan. That is a pretty uplifting thought.

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