Pastor Joshua Goodin
“Are You Burnt Out: How to Avoid Burnout?” Pt. 5
Philippians 4:6 (NIV)
You can become burnt out because you’re so anxious. Always rushing and experiencing anxiety over some things, and if you’re always anxious it makes sense that at some point you will experience burnout. You’re always worrying. Wake up, go to lunch, eat dinner, go to bed worrying, and start all over again and do it the next day. Worrying about the spouse, finances, kids, house, car, pets, and what you’re going to wear tomorrow. You have become a professional worrier. One of the reasons you tend to always worry is because you’re connected to careless people. People who are never concerned about how the bill will get paid, how you are going to make it, never concerned about taking care of their responsibility, their load, and share. When you are connected to careless people you only have one option, but to worry. You don’t realize that you worried so much that it burned out your capacity to just relax. You don’t know how to enjoy the work because all you do is worry. The greatest worry of a parent is making sure that their child is ok. The greatest worry of a person that lives alone is making sure that they can take care of themself. The greatest worry of a person who isolates themself is that they don’t die alone, wondering who’s going to find them. If you’re worrying too much you can’t live and exist, the way you want to.
*Burnout happens and begins in the mind. That’s dangerous because your mind is the battlefield, and the enemy engages in war diligently erecting strongholds which are areas in which you are held in bondage due to certain ways of thinking. The enemy has some well-laid-out plans of deception to try and get you burnt out to the point where you cannot recover. One of the enemy’s greatest skills is patience. The enemy will wait until you get to the right place at the right time to send the right things to cause you to be exhausted, fatigued, burnt out, and ready to give up. The enemy always comes in when you’re most vulnerable.
*Don’t allow worry to be an option in your life. You have the option of whether you choose to worry. Have you ever been praying for something, or trying to get things done, and someone informs you not to worry about it, they’ve got it? Instead, you still choose to stress over it, only to conclude that there was no need to worry. You must be ok that people will get things done, but they may not do it like you would. One factor that causes you to worry is you don’t trust. In this life and journey, you must learn how to trust the process, learn how to trust what God is doing and how he’s working it out. One way you can surely be burnt out is by waiting on God. Sometimes God doesn’t move at the speed you want him to move, and the waiting process makes you feel like you’re in a holding pattern. You’re burnt out with praying, hearing the word, getting into the scripture, and waiting on God, asking him where are you. You’re serving, giving, and doing everything you’re supposed to do, yet God still doesn’t open the door, move in your situation, or turn things around. In burnout, you can feel frustration and anger. The Bible says you can be angry but sin not (see Ephesians 4:26). You can question God you are human, and you ought to ask God some questions, but you need to stick around and wait for the answer, and it may not be what you want it to be. Trust that God’s wisdom is best. Learn how to trust God’s decision process. You don’t have to worry, you choose to worry, and worrying means having a divided mind between two outcomes. You’re burnt out because your mind is going in two different directions. Understand that the root of worry comes from Satan, and he wants you to worry because it affects various areas of your life. Worry affects your worship. You can’t worry and worship at the same time. Worry also affects your witness. How can people be led to Christ by you, and you look perplexed and confused in your mind? You wear worry. People always ask if you’re all right because you look like you’re not all right. You must learn how to not wear your feelings and what you’re going through because it puts you into questions and conversations that you don’t want to have. There are some people in your life who don’t need to see what you’re going through because they are not strong enough to handle your worry.
*Get yourself back into a place of prayer. Prayer is more than communicating with God, but it serves as a vehicle to enter you into the presence of God. One of the reasons you experience burnout is that you don’t spend any time with God. Food is necessary for your body, socialization is necessary for your mind, and prayer like the word is necessary for the nourishment of your spirit. If prayer was good enough for Jesus, then it’s good enough for you. Maybe you would not worry as much if you spent more time praying. When was the last time worrying solved some things for you? Does your day go well when you don’t pray? Do you feel close to God if you don’t pray? You can’t have an expectation from God if you don’t pray.
*You must put some thanksgiving on it. When you go to God in prayer put a little thanksgiving on it. Thank him for how he answered prayers in the past, thank him for keeping you, watching over you, protecting you, and keeping you from dangers seen and unseen. Approach prayer in ACTS, Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. Before you ask God for anything take time to say thank you for what he has already done. Maybe that’s why you haven’t received any new blessings because you haven’t thanked him for the last ones. In tough times sign your prayers with thanksgiving. Hard times are a good time to be thankful because it reminds you to pull on the times in the past that you went through. When things were tough, and it seemed like you couldn’t see your way out, you learned how to think back.
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