If I can be honest, some days in ministry, or in any demanding calling, prove to be profoundly arduous. The stream of distress can feel unrelenting: a cascade of painful news. We deal with serious sickness, the crisis of a child running away, acute marital tension, or complex legal entanglements. Adding to the weight is the sting of a key member leaving after a disappointment, or the constant stress of internal colleague disputes. By nightfall, the emotional tank is completely empty, and we often simply slump into bed, convinced there is nothing left to give.

I wonder, do you ever have days that heavy? Even if your calling isn't ministry, have you experienced a time when your own life felt bombarded by one crisis or piece of bad news after another? How do you then respond to days like these?

We tend to think the answer to depletion is to try harder or find a new resource. But the Psalmist gives us a different command: Pause and Call.“On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased.”(v.3)

Notice the sequence: Calling precedes the increase. Your emptiness is not a sign that you have failed; it's a vital reminder that your well is finite, BUT the Divine well is not. When you call out, tired and honest, God's answer is not merely to fix the problems, but to fill your empty soul with His prevailing power, leading to strength and boldness.

In the chaos, it is easy to pray for the trouble to simply stop. But the Psalmist reminds us that our faith is upheld while we are still walking through the fire.

“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me.” (v.7)

The hard days I describe is a reality of this world. You are walking “in the midst” of legal disputes, strained marriages, and painful arguments. But you are not walking alone. Your safety and your sustenance are not dependent on your ability to navigate the storm, but on the Father's decision to actively preserve you.

Rest in the fact that your job is not to win the battle; your job is to stay faithful, knowing that the “stretching out of the hand” and the delivery belong entirely to the Lord. Let the burdens rest on His broad shoulders, not your exhausted ones.

The ultimate comfort for the minister on a hard day is the certainty that the work is God's, and He finishes what He starts.

“The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.

Do not forsake the work of your hands.” (v.8)

The fear in exhaustion is that the ministry is collapsing, that your work has been in vain. This verse is the final anchor. Your purpose is secure. The Lord will fulfill His purpose for you. Your foundation is secure. His hesed. His steadfast love, endures forever; it is the ground beneath your ministry. Your identity is secure. You are the “work of his hands.”

On days when you feel like you have nothing left to give, lift this final clause as a desperate, honest, and powerful prayer: “Do not forsake the work of your hands.” It is a declaration of dependency that brings immediate release, because it transfers the burden of success and completion from your finite strength back to His infinite faithfulness.

Prayer:

If I can be honest Lord, today, I have nothing left to give, but today, I look to you, my Lord, my King, my Savior, my hope and my joy. Dear Lord, ‘Do not forsake the work of your hands.’ In Jesus name I pray, Amen.