Spiritual Burnout: Finding Balance in Your Relationship with God

Spiritual burnout is real, and it can happen when we approach our relationship with God from a place of desperation rather than balance.

• Overdoing spiritual practices can lead to exhaustion and confusion
• Binge-listening to sermons and excessive Bible reading can create its own anxiety
• The Word is designed to speak to us throughout our entire lifetime, not as a crash course
• God doesn't operate on our timeline or respond to spiritual performance metrics
• We can't force God's hand through busyness or spiritual cramming
• The Holy Spirit prays on our behalf when we don't know what to pray
• Rest and balance are essential parts of a healthy spiritual life

Affirmation: God doesn't need me exhausted to fulfill His purpose.

Transcript

Can You Overdo Spiritual Practices?

Speaker 1 0:00

Can you read the Bible too much ? Can you pray too much ? Can you go to church too much ? Jimmy James Johnson , guilt-free thing . If you're looking for guilt , you're in the wrong place , because we all get down like that . Here we're going to get you walking in victory today .

Speaker 1 0:18

Let's get into it . There's an underlying assumption that we're all so behind in seeking out the Lord , we're already so stingy in the time that we give to the Lord that of course we're not overdoing it . We're underdoing it . But let me just say to you you can in fact overdo it .

Speaker 1 0:38

When I was in grad school , even people who didn't have anxiety or depression suffered under that intense workload . Because I actually had those problems , I was even more desperate for relief . So I really ramped up my pursuit of God and his peace , deliverance and healing power . You couldn't find me without headphones on binge listening to someone's sermons . My mentor warned me about overdoing it . He told me hey , man , god designed us for balance and even taking in too much of the word can confuse and exhaust us . We all know you can have too much of a good thing . It's great to have a tasty dessert after a great meal , but overdo it . You may have indigestion . If you start eating big desserts after every meal , you start to put on some weight . Do that year after year and you may be heading for diabetes . So we see this principle in practice , but we often don't associate it with our spiritual life .

Speaker 1 1:42

No one poses this question . Do I mean that there are days you shouldn't seek out Jesus ? No , does that mean there's days you shouldn't read the Bible ? No . Should you swear off church for a few months ? No , not necessarily .

Speaker 1 1:58

But I can tell you this I was listening to sermons day and night , literally hours a day , going on walks , playing them while I'm studying , so desperate for that hope , for that healing power of the Word . And it can be very soothing Sometimes . If you're really in a panic or you're overwhelmed , you need a lot of the Word to come to your aid , to be in your corner . So there is a time and a place for that . But let's speak about the other side that people don't bring up . If you start listening to all kinds

Exhaustion From Spiritual Marathon

Speaker 1 2:30

of sermons day in , day out and you're just constantly on your knees praying and all of that , you can actually get to a point of saturation where you're just confused . I mean , you're just exhausted , you're overwhelmed , Like you've heard all these messages , and even if they're from people that you respect and believe to be teaching the truth . There's so much nuance in the Bible , there's so many layers , there's so many things that the Holy Spirit has to reveal to you in God's time , and that's not something that you can force .

Speaker 1 3:03

I was feeling very sick , very ill , very troubled , very down , sad , anxious , and here I'm thinking like I'm going to apply the balm of the Holy Spirit to this whole situation . Right , and there is something to that . But I think the way I was going about it demonstrated to me that you can overdo it . The idea that you're just going to overwhelm your faculties with prayer after prayer , page after page , chapter after chapter , and you're going to continue with this like a marathon . That created its own type of anxiety . It was his own type of mania , and that desperation had me devouring all these sermons at such a feverish pace . I didn't really know what I was doing . I was kind of in a haze .

Speaker 1 3:52

People say , hey , the Bible has a lot of contradictions . Well , on the surface I can't really argue with that . I can certainly point out things that seem like contradictions , and if you're looking to me to clarify and argue away all of those or something . You might as well switch channels , because I don't have all those answers . I mean , one answer is the Spirit speaks to you and interprets things for you as you need them . There's a time and a place and a season for everything , and what I've found over the years of being in the Word is my perception of what it's speaking to will change over time . Now I don't look at that as a failure of the Word or , oh , the Bible told me one thing and now it's telling me another thing , like when you're trying to walk in the Spirit and you're asking the Lord to speak to you through the Word .

Speaker 1 4:44

Sure , there can be confusion . You may not get a revelation on something immediately . There may be things you don't get a revelation on while you're still on this earth . I can't speak for God or why all the reasons that happens , but I can say for certain that you will get different things from the Word at different times . And what that means is if you try a speed course , you know how people do programming bootcamp In eight weeks you learn 10 years of programming in Python or C . Or here's a six-hour bootcamp on how to be a bartender . We like the shortcut , right . We want the condensed little package . You know , rarely when we want to do something do we want somebody to say , hey , oh yeah , this is a 20-year path . Like , how does that sound ? Hey , do you want to go to school for 20 extra years to do this ? That's not generally what people want to sign up for , right ? That's why you get the real estate crash course weekend , bootcamp challenge , right . Or you'll see things on YouTube . Let's do the three-day challenge , the 30-day challenge and those have their place .

God's Timing vs Our Timelines

Speaker 1 5:53

But I would submit to you that the word isn't like that . The word is alive with the spirit and it's designed to speak to you as needed , over the course of your entire life . See , the Lord lives outside of time . The Lord isn't in a hurry . Time isn't the issue for God . God has his own time , he has his own seasons . His knowledge is above ours . He can see the lay of the land , he can see the 10,000-foot view of where you are in your life and where he's trying to take you and riding with God . Man , that ain't no .

Speaker 1 6:29

It's not a crash course , it's not a boot camp weekend . It's not a speed reading course . You can speed read through the Bible , but that's not where the power is . The Lord is going to reveal to you over time and hopefully , if you're staying in the Word , you know throughout your lifetime you'll go through the Bible numerous times . Maybe sometimes you read it straight through . Maybe sometimes you're staying in the Word . You know throughout your lifetime you'll go through the Bible numerous times . Maybe sometimes you read it straight through . Maybe sometimes you're studying a particular passage or you're like in a Bible study or something . All of that's valid , but the goal of the Word is not to compact God's power and truth and knowledge into a weekend .

Speaker 1 7:13

That's what I was doing as I was flailing my arms for help , as I was overwhelmed by my studies and the pressure I was under , I kept throwing out a lifeline . Let me listen to another hour of this . Let me listen to another hour of this , let me listen to another hour of this person , and I realize now what my mentor was saying was man , you got to let the Spirit germinate and develop and water those seeds . God doesn't need you to listen to 10 hours of sermons today to heal you . He doesn't need you to listen to 10 sermons today to know that he has a plan for you . You to listen to 10 sermons today , to know that he has a plan for you , a plan to bless you and to look after you , and nor is he promising to heal you . So that's another way people get stuck . They say , hey well , I'm listening to a lot of sermons , a lot of truth on healing , I'm fitting to get healed . Okay , well , guess what ? It doesn't take much looking around to see that at least in this life , you don't always get healed .

Speaker 1 8:11

That's one of the most difficult truths that we have to face and indeed one of the most difficult conflicts of being a Christian . Why does God allow these things to happen to good people ? Why doesn't God answer prayers ? Why doesn't God heal this ? Why doesn't God take this from me ? Why doesn't God help me get up from behind on my bills ? Why is't God take this from me ? Why doesn't God help me get up from behind on my bills ? Why is God letting my relationship fall apart ?

Speaker 1 8:35

And sometimes we're thinking , hey , let me just dig real deep into a whole bunch of word , a whole bunch of truth , a whole bunch of cassette tapes , videos and CDs . And I'm telling you , man , this is what I did . You think I've exaggerated ? I'm not exaggerating , I was listening to this and taking this to heart and begging on this and praying on this and pleading on this day in and day out . And what happened ? Well , it added to my exhaustion because obviously there was a lot of time . I actually needed rest . I needed to just be resting . I needed to take my mind off my troubles . I needed to cast my cares upon the Lord . I thought I was doing that by going on these eight-hour marathons of the sermons , but that's not what I was doing . I was taking it upon myself to actualize that deliverance and that healing . I was say no , god , like not in your time . This is how I'm going to force this issue . This is my timeline . So if I got to just keep listening to this or keep saying these words over and over , but God showed me like I could tell you right now , in retrospect , that didn't save me

When Prayer Becomes Performance

Speaker 1 9:45

. In fact , I got much more sick , much more seriously ill shortly thereafter .

Speaker 1 9:50

So you know that's not the magic key , that's not a shortcut . You don't need to cram for your relationship with Jesus . You don't need to cram to get your deliverance , to get that helping hand . You don't have to cram to get God to hear your pleas , your cries out for help . No , you don't need to . That's not , thank God . You do not need that type of effort in the flesh to reach God . God doesn't need all that . He can hear you , he can see you , he can speak to you . You won't have to sleep with the headphones on tonight , going to sleep to sermons . I mean , I'm not saying you never do that , but I'm just saying like I'm weighing in just on the opposite side of the scale .

Speaker 1 10:36

Some people will say you can't get too much of a good thing when it comes to whatever the word Christianity , god , something in this spiritual category . And I'm here to tell you there are facets of that you can get too much of , because we're not talking about taking a break from being a Christian or from being a believer , or talking about renouncing your salvation for the weekend . That's not what we're talking about . We're just talking about God doesn't need to have your nose buried in the books 24 hours a day to handle your circumstance , 24 hours a day to handle your circumstance . And you'll find that when you overdo it , you will stop getting the rest from it , it will stop putting you to peace and it will start to irritate you . It will start to grind on you . And how does this happen ?

Speaker 1 11:23

One way to grind on you is , eventually you're going to be like , well , god , like I've been praying and listening and speaking , and where's my miracle ? So here you are , like you're putting in all this work so naturally , like in the flesh , like you're expecting a payoff . Right , god ? You see , I'm doing this , I'm doing that , I'm saying the word , I'm memorizing the word , I'm praying the word , I'm doing all the things you told me to do . Where's my ?

Speaker 1 11:47

And that disappointment really builds up . See , when you're doing that and you're out of balance , when that deliverance doesn't come the way you want or quickly enough , what a letdown that is , what a bitter disappointment that is . And then that creates a friction in your relationship with God , because now you're not getting what you want . And you were already kind of frayed and agitated and down and at the end of your rope , and now it's like God , I'm putting in overtime . Can't you see me on my knees ? Can't you see me crying ? Yeah , yeah , he sees all that man . He sees and he cares , and , for whatever reason , sometimes we may come to find out , sometimes we don't .

Speaker 1 12:31

But we can't force God's hand by overdoing it . You're going to have to ask the Spirit what overdoing it means for you , depending on the season you're in . But I just want to plant the seed in your mind that there is such a thing as that . The relationship that we have with God through Jesus is one that is supposed to bring strength and refreshment . It renews our mind , it renews our spirit , it gives us hope and power and the ultimate victory . But sometimes we can get in our flesh too much . We can start trying to work God like the way we work on earth . If I just work harder and faster and take these shortcuts , then that's how I'm going to get my money up . That's how I'm going to lose this weight by starving myself . There's so many circumstances in which we have these very earthly ways of thinking that we're going to really slug it out , and sometimes that's appropriate , sometimes it's not .

Speaker 1 13:29

But you can't force God's hand through your busyness , through no matter how many prayers you say or how many books of the Bible you read . Today . God doesn't operate like that and we should be thankful that he doesn't . That's more of the guilt-free faith . Put the performance on Jesus . It's Jesus's performance , it's Jesus's righteousness that deliverance flows through . It's not

Rest in Christ's Finished Work

Speaker 1 13:56

because of something you did or are doing . No , it's because of the finished work of Christ .

Speaker 1 14:03

And now the Holy Spirit is praying on your behalf , you see . So notice the rest that's in that . Oh , wait a minute . Yeah , jesus is the one that walked out this tough path for me . I mean , he's the one that made me righteous in the eyes of God . So when God looks at me , he doesn't look at my sinful nature , he looks at Jesus in perfection and in love and in kindness and generosity and patience . The Holy Spirit that lives inside me is praying on my behalf . This is all biblical .

Speaker 1 14:36

How often has somebody told you or referred you to that verse about how the Holy Spirit is praying on your behalf ? If somebody had come to tell you that today and said hey , jimmy , man , you look real uptight . Man , the Holy Spirit's on your side here , right , he's praying for you . Ultimately , you're going to cast your cares on him . Oh , man , yeah , I almost forgot man , right , it isn't on me to do this .

Speaker 1 15:01

It isn't on me to carry the burden of making these grand things happen on the spiritual plane . Who am I to do that ? I can't do that . I mean , I could call upon the powers that the Lord outlines for me in the Word . But you know , even those powers like I , just I'm only inheriting them through the conduit of the Holy Spirit , because Christ died for me and left the Spirit for you , me and everyone who calls upon his name for salvation . So let me leave you with this affirmation , because we have to be reminded of this a lot more often than we are . This is an affirmation that you can rest in . God doesn't need me exhausted to fulfill his purpose . God doesn't need me exhausted to fulfill his purpose .