Overcoming Spiritual Fatigue

The demand for daily leading is draining. All-nighters. Leading mission trips. Itemizing budgets and keeping track of receipts. Increasing pressure to keep up with the church down the street and become more and more relevant than the week before. Not to mention communicating program details, graphic design, technology engineer for the entire ministry, and navigating the virtual church world. Make sure to start the coffee pot, vacuum, take out the trash, turn off the lights, and lock the doors after ministry meetings. And don’t forget to cultivate meaningful relationships with parents, develop an expert team of volunteer leaders, and, most importantly, discipleship.

As we juggle the tasks of managing programs, budgets, schedules, teaching, and navigating ever-present opinions, we can quickly lose sight of our priorities—spiritually, personally, and professionally. Forgetting we are stewards and servants of God’s ministry, we start to rely more on our own skills and abilities rather than the wisdom and power of God. We subtly get addicted to the need to be needed rather than the need to be desperate for God to move.

In these moments, we subtly move away from abundant leading and living into leading and living out of complacency, distraction, weariness, and apathy.

Even though we long to lead well, we have allowed the subtle yet rigorous work of shepherding to rob us of hope and lead our hearts into distracted and weary places. Many times, with great intentions, we neglect our soul and our soul’s connection to God at the expense of the ones we’re leading. As life gets busier, our priorities change, our confidence wanes, and our hearts grow fatigued. As life gets more complicated, we grow less satisfied with Jesus.

There is a pressing need for restorative rest and soul care in the lives of leaders. We are seeing leaders abandon the ministry in record numbers due to disillusionment, weariness, overbearing scrutiny, and personal scandals. Spiritual fatigue and burnout are a real threat to you, your family, your ministry, and your church. It’s the devil’s ultimate weapon. If he can exhaust you, he will. If he can destroy your health, he will. If he can make you hate your job, he will. If we want to find a way to defeat the enemy’s schemes, we must identify unhealthy behaviors and eliminate them from our daily routines. Some things need to change if we want to last in ministry.

Here are four symptoms of spiritual fatigue:

Spiritual Neglect. The failure to cultivate and prioritize our own relationship with the Lord, taking shortcuts spiritually. We’ve lost our reverence for what matters and no longer have any heart behind the things done in His name and for His glory. We’ve lost our sense of wonder at who he is. Jesus saved us, but we don’t desire life and connection with Him. We live like forgiveness of sin is a one-time transaction, but we don’t live in constant repentance and confession. Where neglectfulness is present, we see barrenness, bitterness, and carelessness. How does this happen? We stop allowing Him to nourish, instruct, and correct us—and thus, begin to drift away.

Dangerous Distractions. God is too easily forgotten in all of the madness of our busy lives. Another sign of spiritual fatigue is distraction—seeking satisfaction in other people, places, or things. Let’s be honest: we prefer distraction. The more distracted we are, the less present we are to our souls’ various hurts, needs, disappointments, and fears. The most dangerous problem with distraction is being distracted from God—our tendency to shift our attention away from the most significant Person in existence to countless lesser options. It’s a short-term relief with long-term consequences. We’re becoming conditioned to distraction, and it is harming our ability to listen and think carefully, to be still, pray, meditate, and internalize truth.

Adapting to Empty. It’s not just that you lead on an empty tank; you willfully acknowledge you are empty and depleted, and you push through and lead anyway. There’s always somewhere to be, a mission to accomplish, a crisis to attend to, or an errand to run. And stopping to refuel spiritually feels like a waste of time. Adapting to an empty tank is not only dangerous but arrogant. We get up to speak, and deep down, we know we are teaching about a life we aren’t living. We have a gnawing feeling in our gut that something is missing. We know this isn’t how it is supposed to be. We replace abiding in Jesus with working for Jesus, and it begins to define us. It is easy to confuse what we do with who we are. We think we’re serving God, yet ministry itself becomes the engine of our lives that demands our energy, time, and devotion.

Self-Sufficiency. Our current pace and culture run on increased productivity. Our schedules are filled with appointments and priorities. Are we routinely so entrenched in efficiency; we don’t need God? Has our longing for God been replaced by a desire fueled by how much we can accomplish in the shortest amount of time? When systems and processes work seamlessly, resources are abundant, and we can squeeze every inch of our day with tasks and appointments and still manage to check them all off the list, there’s a good possibility we are putting our hope in our own competency and efficiency. You and I tend to acquire certain invincibility, we are convinced that we are in the driver’s seat. Has your competency become your sufficiency? Looking at our life’s pace may reveal the belief that a full schedule is defining our value, worth, and significance as leaders.

In our most difficult moments of ministry fatigue, we need to know the heart of Jesus toward us.. He understands every trouble, temptation, frustration, and drama you face in your ministry. Leader, Jesus sees you. He understands the whisper of temptation that wants to hurry ahead instead of waiting for the Father’s timing. He understands the exhaustion of pouring Himself out for others. He knows the frustration of people committed to misunderstanding Him. He is familiar with what it means to feel the loneliness of abandonment and the heartbreak of betrayal.

What if these symptoms of spiritual fatigue do not indicate that we need a vacation but that we desperately need rest—soul rest, restorative rest?

Rest is about renewal. When you rest, you take time away from the daily demands of leadership to be with God and have Him meet your soul's deepest needs. Jesus never called us to a life of endless exhaustion. He understood that to last, we must regularly re-orient our lives around the One who calls us.

We don’t wander into restful rhythms; we have to work diligently at rest. If we’re prioritizing intentional rest, it will show. It will be obvious to us, our family members, those we lead, and most importantly, to God. When we allow God to lead us into purposeful periods of rest, and when God is in our rest, He can’t help but be in the places we lead. Rested leaders are a breath of fresh air. They are insightful, encouraging, and wise.

We can talk about rest all day long, but none of it matters until we take time to physically stop our work and rest in God. We must develop habits of rest. If you’re new to the idea, here are six suggestions I’ve found helpful.

Slow Down. We live in a chaotic state of rush, race, and striving. What a tragedy. We forgo the very peace Jesus bought for us on the cross. We would rush through life at a million miles an hour, only to miss the very blessings God has given to us. We must slow down to recognize that our deepest need is for God Himself. According to Scripture, the answer to spiritual burnout is intimacy with God and a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit.

“I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit…” (Isaiah 44:3). Make slowness a part of your life; focus not so much on yourself but God, His leading, and His presence. Slow down. Your pace matters because the pace of your life reveals who leads and shepherds your soul.

Be Attentive. Guard your devotion. Spiritual attention is the perfect weapon to use against distraction. Attention is the skill of withdrawing from everything to focus on the essential things. Remember, the goal of distraction is attentional negligence, dragging our heart’s attention away from Christ. Give Christ your fully devoted attention, not just scattered glances. “Behold your God” (Isaiah 40:9). Focus on Him as though your life depends on it. Do the disciplined work to avoid the chirps and dings this world offers.

Examine Your Habits. If we want to learn to grow in our love for Jesus, we need to realize that what we’re doing is actually doing something to us. And often, that something rivals what Jesus wants for us. Identify and eliminate, or at least reduce, the things that distract you. Develop distraction-reducing habits. Make time to feast at the table with Jesus, don’t settle for table scraps. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,” “Seek first the kingdom,” and “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” All means all, don’t let any parts of you be divided or distracted.

Practice Listening. Do we have ears to hear and savor God’s Word above all the noise? Do we have the discipline to reduce and mute the volume on the numerous voices constantly grabbing our attention, even as we turn up the volume on God’s speaking to us in Scripture? If we are going to move from weariness to rest, God’s Word must occupy a more significant portion of our information diet. Many demands insist on our attention; however, we can become people who choose to be still, sit at the Lord’s feet, listen to His voice, be profoundly aware of His presence, and live as close to Him as humanly possible. This is where true rest will be found.

Be Intentional. Closing the gap between knowing and doing in our lives means we will have to develop new routines and tastes that shape our love for Him. Learning to treasure Jesus in a distracted world takes intentional practice. No wonder one of the fruit of the Spirit is self-control or self-discipline (Galatians 5). It’s discipline that pulls the distracted parts of us back together. Disciplines are precisely for people who have too much on their plate. Discipline helps us live inside of our limits so we don’t end up without energy, much less spend time resting in the Lord. They help us become mindful of our day-to-day decisions and how they feed into our spiritual formation. Discipline helps busy people slow down enough to let their souls sink into Jesus. That’s where the real spiritual work is done, in the secret place, where deep calls to deep. They don’t promise to make our lives easier, but I can attest to this—they result in a kind of rest that pulls all the distracted, chaotic pieces of our lives together.

The God of the universe deserves more than a few seconds of our focus and a verse post. He deserves our undivided attention and humble willingness to behold Him for who he is. You are never too dry or too empty for God to replenish you completely.

“For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish” (Jeremiah 31:25). God’s wells run deep and wide. His resources are unlimited. His grace is sufficient. May your intimacy with Jesus exceed all of the ministry madness, busyness, and noise. I pray you are reminded that your ministry is not your life. Jesus is your life.

-MH