The Burnout Bible: How to tackle fatigue and emotional overwhelm naturally

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Blanton, P. G. (2011). The other mindful practice: Centering prayer and psychotherapy. Pastoral Psychology, 60, 133–147.

Verses to Help You Deal with Burnout — Magnify 15 Verses to Help You Deal with Burnout — Magnify

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) 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!” Anderson, R. S. (1990). Christians who counsel: The vocation of wholistic therapy. Pasadena: Fuller Seminary Press. Prioritisation - “The first rule of working smart is ensuring you’re not doing things you don’t need to be doing. It’s easy to procrastinate the effective work you need to do by prioritising non-urgent, non-important tasks. My favourite method for prioritisation is the Eisenhower Matrix [which helps you select tasks based on importance].” Is the high incidence of burnout because our day is inherently more stressful than previous times or because we are not relying on God’s Spirit as we should?Among therapists, burnout or compassion fatigue is a critical concern. As the name suggests, compassion fatigue results in a diminished ability to have empathy for one’s clients (McCollum 2015). This limit one’s effectiveness in providing a healing, therapeutic relationship. McCollum theorizes that compassion fatigue results in emotional dissonance. Due to the demands of providing services to many people during one’s work day, one’s emotional experiences override from one client to the next. Emotional dissonance occurs when there is a mismatch between one’s feeling state and one’s expression, or a carrying of sentiments from one session to the next. Therapists may end up faking interest or compassion. In this way, emotional dissonance results in increased emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. These culminate in decreased personal accomplishment. So by all means, deal with any sinful attitudes before trying to solve the issue of burnout. Self-pity never helps us or equips us when we have work to do, and it will not be our aid in dealing with this. But once we have set aside any sin by confessing it to God, let’s turn to consider the burnout itself. How did we get here in the first place? Know When to Say “No” Elijah walked a whole day into the wilderness. He stopped and sat down in the shade of a tree and wished he would die.‘It's too much, Lord,’he prayed.‘Take away my life; I might as well be dead!’He lay down under the tree and fell asleep. How can we know when to say no to opportunities to serve the Lord? What principles help us to draw the line? Although burnout is growing increasingly common among men in ministry, it doesn’t have to be inevitable. Pastor and counselor David Murray offers men gospel-centered hope for avoiding and recovering from burnout, setting a more sustainable pace.

The Bible and Mental Health: Burnout - News - Bible Society

There is a growing literature connecting mindfulness and Christian spiritual practices as important values accommodative approaches for Christians (Blanton 2011; Garzon 2013; Knabb 2012; Knabb et al. 2017). In other words, mindfulness is being appropriated and tailored for Christian clients in social services. Developing a specifically Christian accommodative understanding of compassion fatigue is important for Christians due to the Buddhist underpinnings of mindfulness (Grabovac et al. 2011). If acedia is at the heart of burnout and compassion fatigue, then reconnecting with God through the spirit will enliven the person struggling with compassion fatigue. In fact, a recent study has shown that Christian spiritual practices may lower anxiety and worry among Christians (Knabb et al. 2017). Some research among Christian pastors indicates that personal renewal and rest-taking strategies are important ways by which pastors may prevent or cope with emotional exhaustion (Chandler 2009). That is, connecting with God using personal renewal strategies (Bible reading, prayer) helps pastors deal with the demands of ministry and with apathy toward one’s congregation. Further, Chandler ( 2010) identifies the crucial role that personal devotion time and prayer time play in preventing and coping with burnout in the ministry. Taken together, there is an emerging connection between Christian spiritual practices and coping with stress, worry, and burnout. There are two ways to work for God. One is “by might and by power” (4:6). This refers to human energy and effort. G. Campbell Morgan paraphrases it, “Not by resources, not by resoluteness” ( The Westminster Pulpit, Vol. VI, p. 53). Schuman, A. (2016). Preventing (and treating) physician burnout. Contemporary Pediatrics, 33(11), 39–41. Worried that your mental health is having an effect on your relationships or your ability to perform at work?

As we continually open ourselves up to the abundant supply of God’s Spirit, we will be used of God to impart the benefits of the Spirit of God to others. Conclusion Every Christian receives the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation (Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:2,3). But we must learn to walk by means of the Spirit (Gal. 5:16), continually, repeatedly depending on Him.