A Case Of The Mondays

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. - Isaiah 40:28-31

My opinion on Mondays changes from week to week. Some weeks, I really like Mondays. They’re a fresh start to a new week. They’re a chance to get organized and plan for all the tasks and events the next seven days hold. They’re a good excuse to have a second iced coffee without any self-judgment. Those kinds of Mondays are great.

But sometimes, Mondays aren’t so great. Sometimes they’re overwhelming. Sometimes they come with mile long to-do lists, piled-up laundry, an empty fridge, and a jam-packed calendar staring you in the face, making you wonder how you’re going to have time to get everything taken care of.

In other words, there are just some Mondays that a second iced coffee can’t fix.

I know you know what I’m talking about. I know you’re busy. I know you’ve got a lot on your plate right now. And with the holidays looming in the background, we’re all about to walk into one of the craziest times of the year, just when we thought it couldn’t get any crazier.

So what we do when we find ourselves with a case of the Mondays? How do we proceed when instead of feeling productive and motivated, we feel stuck and stretched too thin?

If you ask me, I can tell you what the right answer is to those questions. But I can also be very honest and tell you that I’m not always great at living out the right answer.

See, the right answer to those questions about what to do and how to proceed is that we have to stop thinking that it’s all up to us. We have to combat the lie that we have to do everything in our own power and in our own strength if we want to avoid failing, or worse, disappointing the people around us. But that’s way easier said than done, isn’t it?

We want to be independent. We want to be self-sufficient. We want to be all things to all people. Our culture tells us that dependence and reliance equal weakness. But that couldn’t be further from the truth for the life of a Jesus-follower.

You see, our true strength — the strength that comes from the Holy Spirit within us — comes in full force when we acknowledge our dependence and reliance on Christ. When we understand that apart from Jesus we can do nothing (John 15:5), then we will experience what Paul talked about in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

If we’re going to get through this Monday, or any day for that matter, we’ve got to admit our dependence on the Lord. We’ve got to acknowledge that only when we rely on Him can we overcome the stress, the overwhelm, the anxiousness, and the uncertainty we’re facing.

So whatever you’re facing on this Monday, I hope you’ll remember the promise in today’s key verse. God never gets tired. He’s never overwhelmed. He’s never stressed. He never runs out of time. And He never lets us down. He will carry you through this Monday, and He will carry you through every day, if only you’ll make the choice to sit in a posture of full dependence and reliance on Him.