Zerubabbel must have been thinking, “This project will never get done!” The work had begun over 20 years before. It would still take another four years. But God assures Zerubbabel (4:9) that his hands, which had laid the foundation of the temple, would finish it. Eventually, it was completed. Zechariah’s vision gives us a second key element for preventing burnout: 2. To prevent spiritual burnout, depend on the continual supply of God’s Spirit. To prevent spiritual burnout, see the importance of God’s work and depend on the continual supply of His Spirit. Spencer, J. L., Winston, B. E., & Bocarnea, M. C. (2012). Predicting the level of pastors’ risk of termination/exit from the church. Pastoral Psychology, 61, 85–98. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-011-0410-3. Zechariah’s fourth vision (chapter 3) encouraged Joshua the high priest with the message: “God will cleanse His chosen people through Messiah and use them to serve Him.” His fifth vision (chapter 4) encouraged Zerubbabel, the civic leader, with the message: “The temple that you have begun will be completed and My people will become a light unto the nations under Messiah. This will not be accomplished by human effort, but by My Spirit.” In the fourth vision we saw the cleansing that is necessary before anyone can serve God. In the fifth vision we see the testimony that results from a cleansed and Spirit-filled life. While our text will ultimately be fulfilled with Israel in the Millennium, it also applied to God’s people in Zechariah’s day and it applies to us as we seek to be God’s light to the nations.

The Way Out of “Burnout” - Desiring God The Way Out of “Burnout” - Desiring God

That’s what the lampstand and temple were all about. Everything in the temple pointed people to God. We now are God’s temple and His lampstand! By our lives and our verbal witness, we should point people to Jesus Christ. His presence and very nature should be displayed in our lives, beginning in our homes and extending to the world. Although we are just earthen vessels, we contain the treasure of Jesus Christ that the world so desperately needs. Keep in view this vision of the importance of God’s work and your individual role in it and it will help you not to burn out. But there are some negative things that can cause us to lose sight of the importance of God’s work. A. We must be aware of some seeming negatives in God’s work. (1) God’s work seems beset with problems. Stevens, R. P. (1999). The other six days: Vocation, work, and ministry in biblical perspective. Grand Rapids: Eerdman’s. By God’s grace alone, here I am 26 years later, still with some anxiety and an overwhelming sense of personal inadequacy, hanging on! I am not exaggerating or being modest when I say that if God pulled the plug on me tomorrow, I wouldn’t last a month in this ministry. I have often felt like Peter, walking on the water, thinking to myself, “What am I doing out here? Why did I ever get out of that boat?” and at the same time praying, “Lord, if You don’t hold me up, I’m going under!”Grabovac, A. D., Lau, M. A., & Willett, B. R. (2011). Mechanisms of mindfulness: A Buddhist psychological model. Mindfulness, 2, 154–166. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-011-0054-5.

What Is Burnout and Why Is It So Dangerous? - Crossway What Is Burnout and Why Is It So Dangerous? - Crossway

If you are committed to building the church by winning people to Christ and helping them to grow in Christ, God delights in what you are doing. You’re doing what Jesus said He will do, namely, “I will build My church.” What could be more important than to commit yourself to doing what Jesus Christ is doing? (2) God’s work is a worldwide work that will prevail. For businesses, there is a new solution. A Harley Street and City of London psychotherapist, executive coach and mindfulness consultant has set up a clinic for high achieving professionals which specialises in treating these pernicious conditions.That is to say, you can utilize your human talent and be as determined as a bulldog and you will see some results. But when you stand before Christ, it will be as wood, hay, and stubble (1 Cor. 3:12), because it came from the flesh. When you work in the power of the flesh, you get the credit because the results were due to your ability and your hard work. God may get a tip of the hat, but He was not at the center and so He is robbed of glory.

The Burnout Bible | Rachel Philpotts | 9781788603768 | NetGalley The Burnout Bible | Rachel Philpotts | 9781788603768 | NetGalley

Capps, D. (2008). The decades of life: A guide to human development. Louisville: Westminster John Knox. When I began to serve as a pastor 26 years ago, just six weeks shy of my thirtieth birthday, I was extremely unsure of whether or not I could do it. I didn’t know whether I could prepare new sermons each week without running dry after a short while. I didn’t know if I could handle the other aspects of the ministry: providing leadership and vision for the church, giving biblical counsel to those in need, working graciously with difficult people, discipling current and future leaders, conducting weddings and funerals, and handling day to day administrative tasks. A Christian understanding of work as calling entails a sense of vocation. As James Fowler ( 1987, p. 32) reminds about vocation as developing from a profound understanding that humans are investing in their current context, in the here and now “for the sake of investing our gifts and potentials in furthering some cause that is of transcending importance.” In this regard, Christian work is a divine or transcendent orientation toward purpose in pursuing one’s work. Vocation or calling provides meaning in relation to the “summons of a good God” (Stevens 1999, p. 72). The concept of calling as an intensely personal, purpose-driven understanding of one’s work speaks directly to burnout. One’s sense of meaning and value relates to one’s personal satisfaction—valuing one’s contributions at work.Three important spiritual practices that are useful in coping with burnout are (1) the Jesus prayer, (2) the daily examen, and (3) the prayer of consideration. These three spiritual exercises are intended to rekindle one’s spiritual connection to the divine. The Jesus Prayer is an ancient spiritual practice coming out of the Christian contemplative tradition (Talbot 2013). The simple Jesus Prayer is as follows: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” ​​ Talbot ( 2013) describes the practice of connecting the breath with the prayer: “Breathing in fills us up, and breathing out empties us. Breathing in causes us to hold on, and breathing out causes us to let go” (p. 17). By connecting “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God” with inhaling, one experiences the breath (or spirit, in biblical terminology). Exhaling on the phrase “have mercy on me, a sinner” allows for the release of guilt, shame, and anxiety. Recent research suggests that practicing the Jesus Prayer positively impacts mood (Rubinart et al. 2017). Further, some practitioners have reported a deepened sense of peace and calm, furthering their relationship with the transcendent other (Rubinart et al. 2016). In other words, the Jesus Prayer rekindles one’s connection to God through attending to one’s breath or spirit ( pneuma in the New Testament; see John 3:8). Talbot, J. (2013). The Jesus prayer: A cry for mercy, a path of renewal. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.

What does the Bible say about burnout? | GotQuestions.org

Have you not heard? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.’ The word burnout is interesting because that is literally what is happening at a cellular level in the body. There is burning going on. Much of recent research has shown that people with depression or anxiety actually have inflamed cells. Fight or Flight . . . All the TimeLet us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.’ Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. (Hebrews 12:12–13) Worried that your mental health is having an effect on your relationships or your ability to perform at work? Smith, S. (2014). Mindfulness-based stress reduction: An intervention to enhance the effectiveness of nurses’ coping with work-related stress. International Journal of Nursing Knowledge, 25(2), 119–130. https://doi.org/10.1111/2047-3095.12025. That is no insignificant task, because it involves displaying the light of God’s glory to a world that loves darkness rather than light! The apostle Paul said that “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4). The only way that such blind people can see is if, as Paul goes on to say, God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness” shines into their hearts “to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” God does that by putting His treasure in earthen vessels, “that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves” (2 Cor. 4:6-7). Our task, as God’s people, is to be His lampstand, shining forth with His glory to this sin-darkened world.