mgpcpastor's blog

Article by Archie Parrish from Tabletalk Magazine, posted at Ligonier.

Excerpt:

Christians committed to Christ’s work can experience physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion similar to what non-Christians experience. Christians also have to deal with the added challenge of spiritual burnout. If burnout detectors were placed at every church entrance, we would be shocked to see how many who began by the Spirit are now trying to be perfected by the flesh (see Gal. 3:3).

Why Does Spiritual Burnout Occur?
Literature on spiritual burnout suggests many causes. Some of these include failure to maintain one’s devotional life, trying to do too many things with too little time and too few workers, unconfessed sin, zeal without knowledge, wrong motives, seeking to please people, and frustrated expectations. In my opinion, many of these are not causes but symptoms of burnout.
The root cause of burnout is the failure to draw on the power available from our union with Christ. The heart is continually a battlefield for the spirit and the flesh. If the human spirit does not draw on its union with Christ, it defaults to the flesh. During these battles, the devil whispers in the believer’s ear, “If God really loved you, would He make you suffer like this?” This can cause doubts that may move believers to try to do God’s work for Him.

Read the whole post at Ligonier Blog.