I got saved when I was eight years old. It was 2:30 a.m. on Sunday when I should've been sleeping, but God had other plans. Occasionally, I would stay up late to see my Dad after he worked second shift. This night, we played video games, ate pizza, and talked about Jesus. The late night concluded with me accepting Jesus into my heart. Research shows I'm not the only one to ask Jesus into my heart at a young age.
According to Southern Nazarene University, 83% of American Christians get saved as children and early youth, with ages 4-14 being the most dominant age. Sadly, the likelihood of becoming a Christian only decreases with age. But today, I'd like to focus on something a little different: What happens when you've served God your whole life but are suddenly tired of the Christian grind? Showing up, serving, and believing are essential, but you face faith fatigue. How can we learn to find rest without walking away from what saved us and gave us life?
Meet Charles Stanley, and imagine this scene.
You still attend church, but your heart and mind are on autopilot. You mean to be sincere, but typically feel out of it. Your social is full of Bible verses, but you struggle to think they're true for you. You believe in God but are too tired to pursue a deeper relationship with Him. Sound familiar?
As a Pastor, Charles was facing tremendous burnout. He was in charge of the Sunday service and two other programs weekly. After three hospital visits in one year, the doctors recommended that he step back and stop doing so much. Instead of listening, he convinced himself he couldn't (and wouldn't) stop. Charles was nearly on his deathbed when he realized this: "One of the primary reasons we suffer spiritual burnout is that we have a wrong view of the gospel."
Everyone, spiritual or not, faces fatigue and weariness to some extent. What I want you to know is that this isn't about losing faith, being weak, or being less than; it's about feeling drained within faith. There's a big difference between spiritual dryness and disconnection caused by our views about God and ignoring and avoiding Him altogether.
If you're feeling overcommitted, spiritually numb, and running on empty, I want to encourage you with two things: 1. You're not the only one, and 2. Jesus doesn't want you to live life this way.
As beautiful and transformational as the Christian faith is, sometimes we can get confused. We trade Paul's words in Ephesians 2:8-9 for the pressure to perform. Instead of trusting that God saved us by His grace when we believed, we often treat faith like productivity. We check spiritual disciplines off our to-do list without another thought and move onward in the busyness of life. Has your quiet time, church attendance, and commitment to spiritual practices become another check?
Even worse, while we're called to bear one another's burdens (Galatians 6:2), we're running ourselves dry. We're carrying everyone's backpacks without setting limits, and then wonder why we're so tired. So, what does Scripture show us about these things?
Growing spiritually tired is normal. Again, you're not alone in this struggle. Elijah, Moses, and David all felt this way occasionally. Even Jesus often withdrew to rest. Spiritual burnout isn't new or uncommon. But how to recover might sound like it.
Unlike Charles in the example I shared above, don't wait to tend to yourself and your needs until you're in the hospital and exhausted, on the edge of death. Burnout might not cause you to go brain dead, but it can certainly cause your mind to not function as correctly as it should.
Psychology Today notes: "Burnout steals more than just your energy; it robs you of your intelligence and problem-solving. Burnout harms memory, focus, verbal skills, multitasking, impulse control, and executive functioning. Cortisol changes from burnout disrupt neurotransmitters, shrink the hippocampus, and reduce neuroplasticity. The cognitive decline from burnout can persist even after exhaustion symptoms improve."
While there's a lot of science behind burnout, today I want to give you some practical spiritual practices for recovery. These are not things that sound good, but they are spiritual fluff. No, here are fundamental tools I've used in my own seasons of spiritual recovery:
1. Be honest with God about your exhaustion. Instead of trying to hold everything together, tell God how you feel. Lay down your burdens and ask Him what He asks of you (Hint: It's not to take the whole world on your shoulders). Micah 6:8 tells us quite plainly: "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God" (NIV).
2. Pray with Psalm 42 in mind. Take time to read over this passage and commit it to memory. Doodle what images come to mind as you read, and remember that our souls are made to thirst for the Lord. Ask Him for help and guidance, and reconnect through rest, not rituals. Pray for a renewed heart and mind, and replace legalism with a free and refreshing relationship with Him.
3. Redefine your "faithfulness." Warning, this one might take some time and wrestling, but it's always worth it. Learn to redefine your "faithfulness" to the Lord as staying near to God in all seasons, not what you do for Him. While our faith should cause us to live for Jesus, remember that we can't take credit for salvation or attempt to save ourselves. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we've done. Salvation is a gift given to us by faith through grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). Works are important, and faith without works is a dead faith, but those works do not save us or evaluate our faith.
4. Create boundaries around spiritual expectations. I know I will offend someone by saying this, but please hear me out: You can love God without leading every small group. You know when it's hardest to lead others? When you're pouring from an empty cup. Yes, Jesus uses us in weakness, but He doesn't ask us to exhaust ourselves, even in spiritual practices. We must have solid boundaries regarding our spiritual expectations of ourselves and others. As Charles Stanley comments, "My responsibility is to trust Him to do through me what He knows I cannot do. That's what spiritual maturity is."
Friends, God doesn't want you to live in a constant state of burnout, but if you find yourself in this place, know that burnout doesn't mean backsliding; it's part of being human. God's love, His true, steadfast, faithful, and eternal love, doesn't require legalistic effort, but your honest and continual presence. Running to Him repeatedly, and embracing the proper rest found in Matthew 11:28-30. This rest doesn't come from a place of doing or striving; it comes from acknowledging our limits and allowing God to do it.
“Come to me, all weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy and my burden is light" (NIV).
Because maybe faith fatigue isn't a failure, but an invitation to rest in a God who doesn't need our performance. He desires our presence.
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