This post was originally published on WayFM.com.

My alarm clock was going off again.

As I hit snooze for the third time, I realized something was off. Every night, I went to bed exhausted and would wake up just as tired. Clearly, there was more going on here. We could talk about hormones, diet, or exercise, and all those things are important, but I think the pervasive exhaustion I’m seeing in myself and women all around me is deeper.

What if this exhaustion is more than just a result of a busy life?

I asked ChatGPT, “If you were Satan, and you wanted to keep Christian women exhausted- how would you do it?” The answers felt like I was reading my own journal! The things I so often struggle with were there before my very eyes in a list. Seeing what the enemy might be up to gave me a clearer vision of how to fight back.

The enemy loves to keep us distracted, discouraged, and depleted so that we’re too weary to walk in our God-given purpose. But we don’t have to fall into his traps! He is working embarrassingly hard to keep us too tired to be the women of faith God has called us to be. I wanted to share what ChatGPT said, along with some tangible ways that I have found to fight back.

Here are the top 3 ways the enemy could try to keep Christian women exhausted, according to ChatGPT.

1. Keep Her Too Busy to Be Effective

Satan loves to keep us busy with good things that may not be God’s things for us. Overcommitment can lead to burnout and keep us from the mission God has for our lives. Even simple scrolling on our phones can keep us from being present and aware of what God has put in front of us each day. I often find him in the mundane and the quiet, but I have to go slow enough to notice his presence and voice.

Counterattack:

Clear time in your schedule for God. You will have to fight for small moments of peace and quiet to share your heart with Him and hear His voice. Stopping everything to worship, read your Bible, or have a conversation with God grounds you again in His love for you.

2. Drown Her in Comparison & Perfectionism

Social media helps fuel the lie that we’re not doing enough or not doing it as well as someone else. Chasing an impossible standard will leave us too drained to rest in God’s grace. We can get stuck thinking if we just lose those few pounds, get that promotion, the relationship, or the better house, then we will be satisfied and be able to move on. But the lie of “do more” and “be more” will never fulfill us and instead will leave us feeling emptier.

Counterattack:

Limit your time on social media and replace comparison with gratitude. Focus on your unique calling from God. He made you unique for a reason. Meditate on Galatians 1:10—seek to please God, not people.

3. Make Her the Savior

The enemy wants us to believe that if we don’t hold it all together, our families, our jobs, and our ministry will fall apart. We can start to think it all depends on us. This kind of exhaustion is what I most often deal with. I say I trust God, and yet I keep taking the reins of control back from Him.

Counterattack:

Surrender and cling to our trustworthy God. I remind my own heart that He has control and I can trust Him with the parts of my life that are scary to let Him have.

Lysa Terkeurst says in her book,

“I want to trust you, but I don’t. If we anchor our hope to the Lord, the risks of trust will be much less terrifying as we develop the muscles of resiliency. The woman who thrives…is the one who plants her brokenness in the rich soil of her faith in God and waits with anticipation to see what good thing God will grow next.”

God has control of all things, and in Him all things exist. For me, it’s a continual surrendering of the things I try to control, asking for forgiveness, and letting God take the reins again. Remember John 16:33:

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

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