Feeling Burned Out? Try These 5 Tips to Recharge

Writer

Updated April 28, 2022

We’ve all been there. When we wake up, our minds are often racing before our feet hit the floor. There are endless emails, meetings, ministry events, children’s school activities, dinner to cook, and social outings. We have gotten so accustomed to doing all the things, that we function on autopilot. Busyness becomes a badge of honor and being continually overbooked a status symbol.

While God has called each of us for a unique purpose, burnout is real and we want to make sure that we are being filled up. God wants us to live whole, abundant lives (John 10:10) and not to simply survive.

As we continue to move forward, let’s begin to exchange burnout for joy and exhaustion for contentment in Christ. If you have been struggling with trying to manage “all the things,” here are five ways to help recharge when you are burned out.

1. Decrease Your Schedule

You may be thinking, decreasing your schedule isn’t possible. While our schedules are always overflowing, there is something that can be let go. An extra meeting that isn’t required or an outing that happens monthly. Decreasing our schedules may be a temporary adjustment or permanent decision. If you are looking to recover from burnout, something has to go. When we eliminate one or two things from our already full lives, it frees us up and makes more room for God’s presence. We begin to hear more clearly, seek God’s guidance, wisdom, and direction.

Newsflash: We can’t be all things to all people.

Depend on God to lead as we follow Him. God’s grace will cover and go before us “providing all of our needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). As we decrease our schedules, let us begin to focus on what we will gain, instead of what we will lose. It will free us up to have more time to strengthen our relationship with God, spend more quality time with those we love, and quiet our souls from the many distractions of this world.

So today, I invite you to take an intentional inventory of your schedule. What can you let go? When we take the courageous step of scaling back, it will help us to draw closer to God, rest and recharge.

2. Ask for Assistance

Asking for help is essential if we want to recharge. No person is an island and God has provided support for us to accomplish all that He has called us to do. If we are unsure of how or where to start to ask for help, start with asking God. Go to God with boldness with your requests, and He will direct you. In Matthew 7:7, Jesus states, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

If we are trying to maintain the house, complete a work task, or serve on a ministry committee, we need help. There are only so many hours in a day, and we cannot do it all. Today, I invite you to pray to God about who you can ask to support you.

With maintaining the household, ask your children or spouse to have designated cleaning tasks to help lighten the load. For work or ministry tasks, ask a peer who is gifted or more skilled in a particular area to support you. Consider using a laundry or food delivery service to help you plan your meals. Ask God for courage to step out on faith and your comfort zone to get the support you need. Surrender to God and allow His strength to uplift and recharge you. God will provide valuable resources to us to help on our journey, but we have to be willing to open up our hearts and minds to receive.

3. Trust God with the Outcome

Another major reason that we experience burnout is because we want to maintain control – of our homes, career paths, ministries, and lives. If we can’t “get it done,” it won’t happen, or be done well. Surrendering control to God’s leading can help us to recharge because our minds aren’t as weighed down and burdened. When we trust God with the outcome of our schedules and lives, it will provide us greater peace and contentment.

Proverbs 3:5-6 states, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Trusting God will help to alleviate unwanted anxiety and stress as we try to keep everything together. Surrendering control will also help us to depend on God more because He is leading and directing our lives. Cast our cares to Him, because He cares for you.

God doesn’t want us to live in a continual state of burnout, exhaustion and overwhelm. Trust God with both your daily schedule and the direction of your life.

4. Rest

We will recharge from burnout when we rest. That includes resting our bodies, minds, calendars, and spirits. Jesus instructs us to rest. Matthew 11:28 states, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Rest helps us not only to re-energize our bodies, minds, and spirits, but it also helps us to hear from God more clearly. When I take the time to truly rest in the Lord, I am at peace. My burdened mind, worries, and anxieties don’t consume me and I am reminded of God’s overwhelming love and care for me.

1 Peter 5:7 states, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Resting in the Lord is not a one-time event, but a daily decision and commitment to invite God into our lives, attitudes, circumstances and hearts.

Today, I invite you to be encouraged and rest in the Lord. Surrender your cares, anxieties, and burdens to the Lord and allow God to renew, strengthen, and refresh you. God’s rest is the best.

5. Spend Time with God

When we want to recharge from burnout, spending time with God in prayer, worship, and quiet time helps to strengthen and sustain us. We can drown out distractions and focus on what is most important – cultivating our relationship with God.

Apart from what we do, God is most concerned with who we are. We can come to God just as we are, giving thanks and surrendering our joys, and concerns. Try to set aside at least 15 minutes of quiet time each day for you to connect with God, center your mind, and receive God’s peace. Before the demands of the day consume your mind and schedule, taking the time to pause and sit still in God’s presence provides rest. As you move forward, you can hear more clearly from the Lord in the stillness.

As we move forward accomplishing the things that God has called us to do, I encourage you to pause, assess, and recharge. Let us cling to God and pray for courage and boldness to say no to things that are keeping us burned out and depleted. God wants us to draw to Him as our ultimate source of strength, acceptance and contentment.

Kirstyn Mayden is a Christian blogger who writes devotionals that empower and equip believers in their everyday lives. She is a wife, Mom, and loves Jesus. She has a Master of Divinity degree from Emory University in Atlanta, GA. For the last 20 years, Kirstyn has served in several ministry capacities. She has a passion to serve with women empowering them to grow and live out their God-given purpose. Currently, she serves alongside her husband in ministry in West Virginia. She is the author of Merciful Moments: A Devotional Journal for Moving Forward with Grace Each Day. Connect with Kirstyn’s blog here.