I talk to a lot of women. Single women and married women. Women who work full-time and women who work part-time. Women who work all the time in their homes. Women who are pregnant and women who wish they were. Women who are raising kids and women who have empty nests. Women who are caring for aging parents and women who are mourning parents. Women who have financial stability and women who don’t.
Despite their varied circumstances, almost all of them have something in common—they’re weary. Physically weary or emotionally weary or spiritually weary.
We’re a generation of weary women despite having more hacks and conveniences than ever before. Perhaps we’re weary because we have so many resources. The abundance of opportunities leads to greater expectations for ourselves and others. The idea that we can do it all, be it all, and have it all seems just believable enough that we wear ourselves out trying to live up to an impossible standard.
We need to reconsider our approach to life’s demands in light of God’s Word. Perhaps in your weariness you’ve sought comfort in the Psalms or wisdom in Proverbs. But have you considered Paul’s teaching on the armor of God in Ephesians 6:10–18? In these verses, he helps us understand the true nature of our struggles and the true source of our strength. Here are three truths that can help us find rest.
1. We’re engaged in a spiritual battle.
You probably don’t flinch at the idea that we’re engaged in a battle. Which one? you think. The battle with the 2-year old over using the potty or the battle with the teen over screen time? The battle with the insurance company that doesn’t want to cover the therapy you need or the battle with your elderly parent who doesn’t want to stop driving? The battle against loneliness and anxiety or the battle against hormones and aging?
These are all real struggles we navigate daily that we shouldn’t minimize or brush aside. But Paul explains in Ephesians 6:11–12 that the real battle we’re fighting is a spiritual one. Our daily struggles are manifestations of our deeper struggle against the world, the flesh, and the Devil (2:2–3).
Our world is fallen, broken and tainted by sin, so some of our struggles result from living in a world that doesn’t work as it should and in a culture that has rejected God. We’re also fallen people, so some of our struggles result from our indwelling sin. And we have a fallen Enemy, the Devil, who invisibly but actively works against God’s people, so some of our struggles result from his schemes. We need to understand the true nature of our battle because it informs how we fight and what we fight for.
2. We need strength more than solutions.
When weariness catches up to us, we often assume we just haven’t found the right schedule for our families, the right diet and exercise routine for our bodies, or the right job that will feel like a calling instead of work.
Our daily struggles are manifestations of our deeper struggle against the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
There may be practical changes we could make to lighten our load, but they won’t address our spiritual struggle. We’re wearing ourselves out trying to fix what’s outside of us when the peace and rest we crave come from God’s strength and presence inside of us.
When it comes to spiritual battle, Paul doesn’t tell us to find creative solutions; he tells us to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” (6:10). Until Jesus returns, sin and all its effects will persist in this world. We can’t fix all our problems, but we don’t have to be weighed down by them either. We can navigate them faithfully with hope in Christ.
We can have joy amid trouble. We can have peace amid chaos. We can obey amid temptation. Our circumstances may not change, but by God’s power and strength working in us, we can stand strong. Seeking spiritual strength instead of putting our hope in material solutions turns our focus to Christ, allowing us to rest in him.
3. We have the armor of God.
The idea of God’s strength at work within us is encouraging, but it can also seem abstract. We believe God is powerful and gives strength to his people, but we’re not so sure how that practically works out in everyday life. That’s where the armor of God comes in. Despite what our church experience might suggest, the armor of God isn’t just for VBS and men’s retreats. It’s for women too.
The armor of God isn’t just for VBS and men’s retreats. It’s for women too.
The metaphor of battle armor (vv. 13–17) helps us understand how the spiritual blessings we have in Christ give us practical help and protection in our daily struggles. Salvation isn’t just a promise of heaven for eternity; it’s a helmet that can protect our minds now. Righteousness isn’t just about our legal standing before God; it’s a breastplate that guards our hearts. The Word of God isn’t just a story of God’s redemptive plan; it’s a sword we can use to fight Satan’s temptations.
We have incredible blessings and benefits in Christ, and Paul uses the metaphor of armor to show us how to put them to use in our spiritual struggles. We’ll find help by considering each piece and how Paul tells us to use it. (The Gospel Coalition’s new 30-day devotional, Strong in the Lord, was written to help you do just that.)
The armor of God isn’t a spiritual life hack that will solve our problems. Even if we “take up the whole armor of God” (v. 13) as Paul exhorts us to, we’ll still face many of the same struggles. But Paul explains in Romans 5:3–4, “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” By God’s grace, our struggles don’t have to wear us down with weariness—they can build us up with hope.
Read more from Winfree Brisley and other writers in Strong in the Lord: A 30-Day Devotional on the Armor of God (Crossway/TGC, 2026).
