When You Feel Drained
“He makes me to lie down in green pastures.” Psalm 23:2
Life can still feel draining even when you are living right and doing all the right things.
Sometimes you’re drained not because you did anything wrong but because you happen to occupy this planet. Its like receiving a letter simply addressed to “All Occupants”.
The combination of the world, the flesh, and the devil can suck the spiritual vitality right out of you if you let them.
You try to pray, but you can’t make out the words. You know you ought to read your Bible, but when you try to, the letters on the page all run together, and none of it makes sense. And you don’t want to listen to spiritual people, especially when you feel they may not understand exactly how you feel. You’re just going through the spiritual motions, nodding and saying amen, yet in your soul, you’re running on empty.
David, who had been a shepherd, said that God makes us lie down. He makes us lie down because, just like sheep, we would keep on wandering all over the place and wearing ourselves out.
Note two things David says:
1. ‘He makes me to lie down in green pastures.’ The word green means fresh.
Each day, you need a fresh encounter with God through prayer and a fresh intake of His Word. Bread is not the only thing that can go stale; your spiritual life can, too. So you need to stay fresh.
2. ‘He leads me beside the still waters’. This means that you need times of quietness and reflection. ‘Be still, and know that I am God’ Psalm 46:10.
The only way to know God intimately, sense His leading, and draw on His strength is to be still.