01. Christ Sustains Us with Jenny Manley
Today we’re kicking off a brand new series called Rest for the Weary with a conversation I shared with my friend Jenny Manley. Jenny and I talk about how Christ sustains us in our weariness. As you’ll hear, Jenny is a pastor’s wife who lives on the Arabian Peninsula. She’s also the mother of five kiddos, one of the hosts of the Priscilla Talk Podcast, and an author. Through years of ministering faithfully within the four walls of her home and in her local church, like many of us, Jenny has navigated seasons of weariness in the work the Lord has set before her. The wisdom that Jenny shares with us today will leave you refreshed and encouraged in whatever work the Lord has set before you today.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Have you ever experienced a season in which you felt weary in the work the Lord has set before you?
How have you experienced Christ sustaining you in your personal seasons of weariness? How does Christ sustain us in all seasons, including seasons of weariness?
What contributes to seasons of weariness in the life of a believer? Does a season of weariness indicate that we're doing something wrong? How can we examine our hearts in such seasons?
How can we find joy in Christ even when we feel weary?
How can we look to Christ when we're feeling weary and when we don't necessarily feel his nearness?
Scripture tells us that we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are. Did Jesus ever experience seasons of weariness and weakness in his earthly ministry? What can we learn from that?
How can meditating on the life of Christ encourage us in the work he's set before us?
How does the promise of Christ's return help us persevere in difficult seasons of ministry?
What brings you rest in seasons of weariness?
NOTES & QUOTES
“You have to be able to say without a doubt that Christ has held fast to me through each [trial]. And sometimes rest looks like reprieve from the situation: The trial ends, the anxiety or the darkness lifts, or the babysitter shows up and you can take a nap, or whatever that may be. But sometimes God sustains us just by giving us more of himself.”
“My dependency on him was so much more obvious to me and his strength was made so much clearer in light of the knowledge of my weakness.”
“We hold on to those precious promises that he will hold fast to us, that his steadfast love endures forever and he sets it upon us. And our weariness doesn't affect his love for us or his care for us or his sovereign goodness over us.”
“Sometimes weariness can just be simply a lack of wisdom and stewarding our time well.”
“Sometimes it's sin, sometimes it's just physical need, sometimes it's just lack of wisdom. But I don't think it's always one of those things. Sometimes it's just God's sovereign plan for us that he has us in a season of suffering. He has us in a season to let us see the end of our humanity and our need for him.”
“It's seasons of trial that so often are the genesis of leaps of growth.”
“The hungrier I was the more I devoured his Word, and his Word became sweeter than honey to me.”
“There were days that it was so dark for me. But knowing the Lord in that way grew my heart's capacity to take on more of him. And that was what the Lord knew that I needed. I needed a greater capacity to take on more of him than what I had.”
Lauren: “Seasons of grief, sorrow, suffering, and loss cause a particular kind of weariness. It’s a heart weariness, a spiritual weariness that can feel impossible to endure. It might even cause us to wonder about God’s heart toward us. Because how are we to think about God and his character when we are enduring such weighty trials? Charles Spurgeon once wrote this about our seasons of sorrow and trials. He said, “it would be a very sharp and trying experience to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me, that the bitter cup was never filled by His hand, that my trials were never measured out by Him…But, on the contrary, we can see the hand of God in all our trials…[in fact] our heavenly Father fills the [bitter] cup with loving tenderness, and holds it out, and says, ‘Drink, my child; bitter as it is, it is a love-potion which is meant to do thee permanent good.’” This is the heart of the God who sustains us in our weariness. It’s the heart of a God who sees our frail form, sees our hurting heart, sees our weariness in our suffering—sees it all, and cares deeply. Sometimes he sees our hurt and ends the trial or offers relief from our circumstances. But sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes he tenderly asks us to continue on, leading us forward along in the season of difficulty, but not out of malice or unkindness—ever and only to offer us the eternal good—of our own sanctification and of Himself. It is this God—this God of kindness and goodness—who promises to hold us and sustain us, no matter what we face. I don’t know what it is that you’re walking through, but—if you are in Christ—I know that he is holding you fast, that his heart toward you is kind, and that he is working for your good. It is this truth, my friend, this truth of who God is, even in your pain and sorrow and weariness, that can offer you true and lasting refreshment.”
“Hard is not bad. The opposite of weary isn't joy. Situations in life that leave us feeling weary may just be for our good and for our joy.”
“We avoid pain. We avoid situations that are hard at all costs, but really going through a hard situation and one that causes us to feel weary may be the conduit to greater joy in Christ. We know a greater dependency on him. We know his strength in comparison to our weakness in those moments. And I think that joy is so much deeper than a circumstantial happiness.”
“It's important to define what rest really is, and it's not just merely not working. It's a pause from our work that leads to refreshment, and especially an enjoyment in the Lord.”
“Thankfully, the Lord has given us means to find that rest that he promises. He gave us his Holy Spirit who indwells us, who reminds us of the truth of who Christ is and what he's done. What better gift is that? He's given us his Word. It contains all we need for life and godliness. His church, a body of believers who, if they are committed rightly to each other, know how to circle around somebody when they're in a real season of weariness and act like a body. Christian brothers and sisters, friends who have walked beside us in different ways. And doctrine, just having categories of truth in our mind that we can stand firm on and say ‘This is truth’ when our emotions are telling us something different.”
Lauren: “What means has the Lord given you today to find refreshment? Sometimes the busy or hard circumstances of life really wear us down, and sometimes in the midst of that we forget that we are surrounded by means of grace that God has lovingly provided to refresh us and offer us rest! Jenny listed several ways that the Lord offers us rest in the midst of our weakness. I wonder, are there things that the Lord has placed in front of you that you might lean into in order to relieve some of the weariness you feel in your current season? Are you drinking richly of the gospel hope and encouragement that can be found in God’s Word? Are you remembering the truths of who he is—truths that offer real and tangible help and hope to us in our weakness? Are you leaning continually on the Spirit—God’s very presence in you!—to find reprieve from the weight of your own anxieties and temptations? Are you invested deeply in your local church community, in a way that they can see you in your seasons of weariness and come alongside you and offer encouragement and support to you? Maybe the step you need to take today is to make a plan to visit a church in your area so that you can find gospel hope and community. Maybe it’s sending a text to a woman in your small group to ask her to have coffee so you can share some of your current burdens with her. Maybe the step you need to take today is simply opening your Bible and reading a Psalm. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 62:1, “In God alone my soul finds rest.” Friend, if your heart is seeking rest, perhaps look around you and see the myriad of ways that God is already offering it to you, namely in the way that he has offered you Himself—the one person in whom you will find true and lasting rest.”
“The most practical advice I could give to someone who's in a season of weariness is to develop a strong doctrine of Christ. Because you can't look to Christ if you don't know who you're looking at or what he did for you.”
“He's sympathizing with our weakness from the position of God. He's interceding for us. He's ruling over our lives. He's giving us what we need when we need it. He's firmly keeping his steadfast love on us. Even just looking at who he is is so important in giving us strength to know that our high priest sympathizes with us. He knows what it's like to be weary.”
“It's not just who he is but it's what he did. As Jesus died, he's hanging on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins. Right as he dies, he cries out, ‘It is finished,’ and I don't know if I know a sweeter sentence in all of the English language. All of the work that was required to complete the work of salvation was done—finished. And then following that suffering there was victory. And so if we're in Christ, that's what we experience. The complete and finished work of our Savior who doesn't ask us to do anything to earn our way to him. It's finished, it's done. And so we're accepted into him with his free offer of grace and salvation to us.”
“The Son of God has come to die for you. It's like he's just shouting it out again and again and again, I love you, I love you, I love you… so much so that I will die for you. Who could ever separate us from that? When we look at the life of Christ, we're just so encouraged to keep going, to not grow weary in well-doing, but to persevere because we've got this God on our side.”
“It sounds counterintuitive to work hard from a place of rest. But I do think that the more we grow in this understanding, the more fueled we are for hard work. Because we're not working to earn God's love, but we're working for God because we understand his love. We're working from a place of knowing what's already been done for us.”
“Rest is important. God himself set the pattern for it.”
RESOURCES
The Good Portion – Christ: The Doctrine of Christ, for Every Woman by Jenny Manley
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
How have you experienced Christ sustaining you in your personal seasons of weariness?
What brings you rest in seasons of weariness?
How can you find joy in Christ even when you feel weary?
How can meditating on the life of Christ encourage you in the work he's set before you?
How does the promise of Christ's return help you persevere in difficult seasons of life?
What might you do or implement based on what you learned in this week’s episode?
IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen interviews are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select guests each week, interviews do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the interviewee or any other resources mentioned.
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