Have you been undergoing months of grinding pressure? Often we don’t have a big spiritual problem or a life crisis – but we are also unaware of what’s dragging us down.
Take some time to think about what aspects of your life are grinding right now. Put it all out on the table for you and the Lord Jesus to look at together. Perhaps you are facing an unexplained illness, or a child who has walked away from the Lord, or a difficult marriage. Perhaps you have not been able to find employment and have been forced to accept charity.
When my husband and I went into missions and I found myself with a traveling husband, all of the daily grinding jobs still needed to be done. Since our salary was meager, we found ourselves often depending on other people’s charity. I didn’t realize how wearying that was until one day after I had advertised for a piano for our youth work, I received a phone call from a very wealthy lady I knew. “I saw your advertisement in the paper, Jill,” she said. I became very excited – We’re going to get our piano! I thought. “We have just bought a new Steinway, so I thought you might like our old piano.” Years of living off people’s secondhand junk suddenly got to me. “No, thank you,” I replied too quickly. “I’d like your new one!” There was a silence, then a cold, curt reply, and I was left clutching the phone, aghast at what I had done. Of course I ended up with no piano at all. Looking back, I think that the sustained pressure and the dependence on people got to me. It was all just too much; I was worn out.
So how do we win our spiritual battles? How do we aspire to spiritual heights when we’re in the physical and spiritual depths brought on by the daily grind?
Get some sleep. Sometimes we just need a good sleep! We need to give ourselves permission to rest and recuperate from life. To relax is work for me! Sometimes I literally need to take my calendar off the wall and write on it “Have fun 4:30 Thursday."
Take time to listen to God. We need to really listen to God. We need to put ourselves in a situation conducive to hearing the still small voice of God. We need to find a place of solitude. Do you have one?
If we can’t physically go to a place of solitude, then we have to travel to that place in our soul, above and away from the noise and bustle of people. We have to learn to listen to God in the midst of our grinding circumstances.
In the daily grind I always find the daily grace I need,
To see in dullness God’s sweet way of forcing me to feed.
In pastures green, beside the streams of waters of the spirit,
The daily grind I often find brings blessings I don’t merit,
Fatigued with dull depressing work and seeming slavery.
If I look up and drink the cup He’s offering to me,
However dull or bitter these things He has permitted –
He has power to change my attitude though hardened and embittered.
Then soon I’ll come to realize this boredom is His gifting.
If I had not been so ground down, how could there be a lifting?!
Remember Jesus. The Lord Jesus lived in a crowded home probably no larger than our living room. He could get away to the desert, hills, or some beautiful garden and did so regularly. Many times He was surrounded by a multitude of needs and had no option but to pray “on the run.”
The one thing that can make the difference is the realization that we are not serving people or even companies or institutions; we are serving God. If we do our work with this mindset, He can energize us and turn our daily grind into something glorious.
