All In, All Yours: Stepping Into God’s Peace and Promises by Heidi Lee AndersonSample

Obstacle #5: Exhaustion

Where do you feel stretched thin?

At work—juggling deadlines, demands, and endless emails?

At home—laundry, bills, and kids to wrangle?

With your health—exercise, eating right, and avoiding the latest things that’ll give you cancer?

Or even in your own mind—battling anxiety, pressure, and the nonstop noise of this world?

Against this rival of exhaustion, the Israelites feel us DEEP. When they caught word of the Amorites’ coming attack in Joshua 10, they were encamped twenty-five miles away from where the battle would take place. So without any beauty sleep, homeboys were forced to travel all night, mostly “uphill, carrying their weapons and gear,” ready to charge right into the fight. (With no Starbucks pit stop? Uff da!)

Easy to imagine these men were running on empty before the battle even began—yet they became a living picture of Isaiah 40:31: “Those who trust in the Lord will find new strength . . . they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.” And as God always does, He showed up, throwing the enemy army “into a panic” (Joshua 10:10, NLT), and giving the Israelites the victory.

But wait. While this fight was won, the battle wasn’t over. Without even a catnap, these men had to book it another twenty miles to chase down enemy soldiers who somehow escaped. That’s basically two back-to-back marathons, y’all! I could never—even if it were the Taco Bell 50K Ultramarathon with a Crunchwrap Supreme dangling at the finish line like a carrot. (Although, I’ll admit, highly tempting.) All in all, exhausted would have been an understatement.

When you’ve hit the end of your rope—your strength gone, energy drained, time slipping away—don’t miss how this chapter ends, so you can know what to expect at the end of yours:

Just as God was on the battlefield, “fighting for his people” (Joshua 10:42, NLT), He will rise up to defend you too.

Just as God showed Himself strong when they were spent, you can trust that when you are weak, He is strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

And just as God used their extended battle to carry them farther than they imagined, the spiritual ground you’re covering is advancing you too.

Know today this battle isn’t wasted; it’s the very place God is pushing you forward. You can keep marching, even through the night, because His strength, His victory, and His rest are waiting on the other side.

Today’s travel tip: Keep going—this march won’t last forever, and God will use every exhausted step following Him to advance you into new ground.