You may feel tired, but that does not mean you are empty. You may look back and see everything you had to give, but you also need to look at what God was doing in you while you were going through it.
1 Kings 19:7-8 (NKJV)
There is something that can happen after a long season of fasting and prayer. You can come out of it feeling tired and mistake that tiredness for emptiness. You can look at everything the season demanded from you and think, “I have given so much. What do I even have left?” But sometimes, what feels like depletion is actually evidence that something has been built in you.
For example, let’s look at the life of Jesus. The wilderness was not a comfortable place. He was tested there and even tempted. Yet Scripture gives us a very different picture of what came out of that wilderness.
Luke 4:1
New King James Version
1 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.
Jesus entered the wilderness filled with the Holy Spirit. But what happened after the wilderness?
Luke 4:14
New King James Version
14 Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.
There is something powerful to note about the progression. He went in filled, and He came out in the power of the Spirit. The wilderness did not reduce Him; instead, He came out ready for what was next.
The word translated “power” in Luke 4:14 is dunamis, meaning strength, ability, and power to accomplish something. Jesus came out of that season with what He needed for His assignment. What had happened in the wilderness was now being seen in His life and ministry.
This is why you have to be careful about how you interpret what this season has done to you. You may feel tired, but that does not mean you are empty. You may look back and see everything you had to give, but you also need to look at what God was doing in you while you were going through it.
We see something similar in the life of Elijah. Elijah had just experienced an incredible victory, yet shortly after, he found himself overwhelmed and exhausted. He sat under a tree and wanted to die. He was at one of the lowest points of his life. But God did not leave him there.
1 Kings 19:7-8
New King James Version
7 And the angel of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.”
8 So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.
Elijah thought he had reached the end of himself, but God knew there was still a journey ahead of him. The food he received became strength for what was ahead.
Sometimes, we become so focused on how tired we feel that we forget to ask what God has done in us. We remember the difficult days, the prayers, the moments we wanted to give up, and everything the season demanded from us. But God was also doing something in us while we were there.
In this season, you have gained understanding. You have become more sensitive to the voice of God. You have encountered His Word more deeply. You have developed spiritual muscles you did not have before. You have also seen things about yourself that needed to change. So do not leave this season only remembering how difficult it was. Ask yourself, “What did this season produce in me?” Don’t allow the tiredness of the wilderness to convince you that you are empty.
The just-concluded forty days of fasting were not just about surviving forty days. Something was supposed to happen in you during those days. And now, what happened in you must begin to show in your life. This is the shift we need to make.
Stop seeing yourself as someone who is still in the desert trying to figure out if you will survive. Look again at Jesus. He came out in the power of the Spirit. That is the picture before us. You have been prepared. You have been strengthened. You have been equipped. You are not coming out with nothing to show for what you have been through. You are coming out carrying something. So walk into what is ahead with an awareness of what God has placed in you.
Prayer
Father, open my eyes to see what You have built in me through this season. Help me not to mistake preparation for emptiness. Give me the wisdom and courage to recognize what I am carrying and the grace to use it for Your glory. Let everything You have deposited in me find expression in the season ahead.
