How Do We Weary God?

You have wearied the Lord with your words. “How have we wearied him?” you ask. By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?” —Malachi 2:17

You know the feeling of making another person tired, when you see that as you talk on and on they are looking bored and they want you to stop, but you are insensitive to it until the last minute and then you are so embarrassed. None of us want to do that to anyone. We don’t want to tire people, and we don’t want to tire God either. But how could we make God tired, especially as Scripture says, “The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary” (Isa. 40:28). According to that verse God cannot become weary, yet Malachi says that the Israelites have wearied the Lord with their words.

If I made God tired by my words I would want to know about it. When Malachi told them that they made God tired, they wanted to know how they were doing it. So Malachi gives two reasons: one, by saying that all who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord; two, by assuming that the Lord is pleased with them and by demanding to know where the God of justice is.

First, Malachi does not say that we weary God by our praying. The most encouraging passage in the Bible on prayer are the verses that follow where Jesus encourages us to ask for the same thing day after day until our prayer is answered (Luke 18:3-8).

Second, we do not weary the Lord by confessing our sins to Him. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Confessing does not just mean saying the right words in your head; it means being truly sorry.

Third, we don’t weary God by pouring out our hearts even if we are complaining. “I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble” (Ps. 142:1-2). That does not weary the Lord.

Excerpted from Between the Times (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 2003).