Faith Steps for Weary Momsናሙና

Overcoming Spiritual Burnout

Are you feeling spiritually dry and bitter? Do you feel weary from the weight of motherhood?

Today, we are going to explore the difference between working for God and from God— and serving from the flesh instead of the Spirit.

If we aren’t careful, spiritual burnout can consume us in the trenches of motherhood. It is often the result of taking on too much physical and/or spiritual work without allowing our spirit to rest, process, and grow. It happens when we are trying to give something that we simply don’t have.

Have you ever felt this way? I know I sure have.

Our Father never intended for us to be alone. He is our Helper (Isaiah 41:1) and we are His servants. He is the vine and we are the branches. You see It’s a WE journey, not a ME journey.

In John 15:9-17, God calls for us to remain in Him in order to produce spiritual fruit in our lives:

“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other.”

So what does it mean to remain in God's love?

The word “remain” in Hebrew is yashab which means, “sit, remain, dwell, abide, or rest.”

Without granting Christ permanent residency to our hearts, we can quickly fall into spiritual burnout or spiritual deficiency. God requires entrance and residency into our hearts and calls us to abide and receive the rest that only He can give.

From this place of rest, we gain the overflow and strength to carry out the things to which He has called us. Time can be limited as busy moms, but we have to also be careful to guardrail our (even tiny) pockets of time, so we can meditate on and fix our eyes on the Father’s spiritual and emotional provision every day.

God is a God of abundance, with more than enough strength, wisdom, and resources for our families, but we have to trust Him enough to serve and not strive.

To work FOR God is to strive and work from human efforts, to rely on your plans and your systems.

To work FROM God, you have a heart of a servant and you give and go from the place of overflow.

Take some time to read over the list of striving vs overflow and take inventory of your own heart:

Symptoms of Striving:

• Bitterness towards God and others.
• Questioning God
• Comparing of blessings, gifts, talents
• Ungrateful Heart
• Disunity in the family of God
• Lack Of Compassion

Outcomes of Overflow:

• Endurance (Isaiah 40:31)
• Identity (Romans 8:14-17)
• Power (2 Timothy 1:7)
• Purpose (2 Cor 1:3-4)
• Joy (Romans 5:3-4)

As you ponder this, pray and seek the Father to align your heart with His. Grant Him residence today. Serve your family from His overflow and rest in the fact that if He has called you to it, He will provide you with the strength you need to be joyfully faithful.

Action Step:

Throughout the week, take some time to pause and ask yourself, “Am I working FOR God or FROM God?”

Read Matthew 12:28-30 and reflect on what it means to bear the yoke of Christ.

Pray for a heart that welcomes a God-sized vision and recite the overflow scripture verses I shared above.

Reminder of the Day:

Don’t serve from a place of weakness in your flesh, but work from the miraculous power He has already placed inside you.

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We'd love to gift you a download of our Noah’s Ark Devotional, part of our Family Discipleship Series. Download it here.