Face Your Demons And You’ll Find Your Faith
Facing And FightingThe Demon Of The Noonday
What’s in a word?
Akedia—aka spiritual lethargy
Give no slack, be not slothful, never lagging behind, no hesitation, be diligently zealous. So many ways to say it. The word the Apostle Paul uses here is Akedia, literally fatigued, like a bow unstrung, ill equipped, not at the ready.
In our modern usage—Romans 12:11
Do not be lazy but work hard, serving the Lord with all your heart.
The dark side of this sin of a lazy faith is the lack of motivation from the inner man, but what’s possibly unseen in that broad generalization is it’s really only fear and depression holding us back, like a deep sleep in the soul. It’s a dark side of our spirit that needs to be brightened, exposed, because anything that becomes visible is light. And how can there be light if the sleeper will not awaken. Kierkegaard said that it was as if someone was “despairingly not wanting to be oneself.”
Don’t be misled, the solution is not busyness. Our souls are tired and it’s not unusual for us to try and hide it with activity. The ‘soulution’ is really more akin to a cheerful affirmation of our own existence in Christ, and joyfully serving the Lord with all our heart. No matter how you feel, you believe. You endure, not trying to fully figure it all out. You serve Him. You fight the depression by being a light in the darkness. Be faithful in a little and inherit much. Find a friend filled with hope, and travel the way together encouraging one another if you need a helping hand at being a helping hand.
Pray to the Lord—Psalm 90:17
May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us yes, establish the work of our hands.
Remember our hope is in the Lord’s hands filled with grace that is reborn with each new day. We wake up every morning to face and fight the same demons that left us so tired the night before, and that is a brave faith at work my friends.