They spent a lot of time in one house rebuilding part of a damaged wall. Everything from measuring to cutting to patching to painting was involved.

But when they got there the next morning, the wall was broken through again.

An angry, intoxicated individual had decided to smash it in. Chances were, if they fixed it, he’d do it again.

You can probably imagine how they felt.

Although that example is extreme, we live in cycles bound mutually by futility and purpose every day.

Outwardly We are Wasting Away

You wash your clothes, and then you dirty them. You do an honest day’s work, and then you have to do it again. You make money, then you spend it. You eat food, and then you…you know.

All things material in this life are wasting away. Even the stuff that can be used for eternal purposes, like spiritually rich books. Or the money we save up to give away. Even the bodies we work hard to take care of have an end.

We live a cycle of do, undo, do again.

We live a cycle of do, undo, do again.
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Inwardly We are Being Renewed Day by Day

God tells us that those who trust in Him are lifted up on eagle’s wings and made able to walk and not grow weary. He promises to make us new. Every day, God says, He offers renewal to our souls (Lamentations 3:22-23).

The Holy Spirit- the very Spirit of God that has conquered death- is living inside of us. God intends for His Spirit in us to change us. His preoccupation has always been building into eternity, which means building His people on the inside.

Reassessing Our Focus

When we think about it, it’s a little silly how much of our energy, concern, and prayer is wrapped up in what’s wasting away.

We ask God all the time to change “things” and fix “stuff” and heal what is going to die someday. It’s not wrong.

But there’s also value in asking God to change hearts and fix perspectives and heal what lasts for eternity.

I know in my heart, changing this focus in prayer lessens the waste of frustration I have with the material, circumstantial, and ultimately temporal. Remembering God’s everlasting work and that He’s renewing us day by day strengthens me when I get weary of the “do, undo, do again” cycle of life in this world. The stretches my prayers beyond the bounds of what’s immediate.

When our living-cycles have spun round their last, may our prayers reflect a rhythm that resonated into the everlasting!

How does inward renewal and the value of the eternal affect how you deal with futility or weariness? How does this change how you pray?

{A version of this post was previously published here}

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