Stuck, burned out and trying to be perfect are not God’s idea of Jesus-centered.
Lots of Christian women are spiritually stuck. Some don’t care that they’re stuck, but others really do. They believe in Jesus, but they’re not growing in Jesus, and they don’t know what the problem is since going to Bible study and church, listening to Christian music, and volunteering every now and again hasn’t gotten them unstuck yet.
Other women are serving in the church because they love Jesus, but they’re on the verge of burnout, if they haven’t already quit. They’ve lost their joy and constantly pretending that they’ve got their act together has sucked them dry. The ministry has sucked them dry, and so they’re too burned out to grow.
Others still just try and try and try and try to be perfect. They keep trying to get Jesus to love them, even though He already does. They’re so focused on perfect-ness that they wind up spiritually exhausted, and guess what? They’re still not perfect.
Jesus doesn’t just give us the key. He is the key.
The Bible tells us that the key to growth, to spiritual fruitfulness, to spiritual sustainability, to real spiritual progress is Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the life. He is the stability of our times. He is eternal life. He is our salvation. All of God’s wisdom and treasure and revelation are in Him. But our truncated understanding of Jesus collapses our faith and limits our growth. We just can’t go very far spiritually or very deep with a mostly VBS understanding of Jesus. We actually need Jesus – not just His Cross, but his very life and way of living, too.
The Key to Experiencing Transformation
The Bible talks about our entire faith life in terms of everything being in Christ, with Christ, of Christ, from Christ, through Christ, by Christ, for Christ, and because of Christ. I’m not sure you can be stuck, burned out or spiritually exhausted from a relationship rooted in a supernatural relationship with a supernatural Lord and Savior! So, since the key IS Jesus:
- Be with Jesus. Cultivate relationship with Him. Read the Word of God, pray to God, worship God in song, thanksgiving and adoration and journal your God-thoughts. Just spend time with Jesus, learning from Him – how He thinks, how He lives and how He wants you to live as someone walking alongside Him.
- Be with each other. Cultivate fellowship with His Community. When Jesus saved us to be in union with Himself, He also saved us to be in union with each other, hence all the “one anothers” of Scripture. That’s why there’s no concept in the Bible of being in Christ apart from the Body of Christ. We spiritually shrivel up without each other, so don’t do that.
- Work with Jesus. Cultivate your partnership with Him. Working for Jesus is a waste of time and a burnout waiting to happen. The call of Christ isn’t to work for Him, but to work with Him, in the same way He worked with His Father to proclaim and progress the Good News and the Kingdom. So, Jesus invites us to co-lead, co-labor and co-serve with Him in the lives of people and then He promises that when we do we will grow and be full of living water and find rest for our souls.
So, say goodbye to mediocre, burned-out, stressed-out Christian living! Choose to sit with and learn from your loving Lord and Rabbi, Jesus, because He’s the key to everything anyways.