Faith to Make Changes
Let me share with you a verse from the Proverbs that really changed my life: “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.” (Proverbs 27:12 NIV)
Don’t just keep going if there are dangerous things in your life. Dangerous things that drain you and knock you the whole time. Take refuge – in other words, get out of the way of the dangerous thing!
Identify Drains
What drains you? What causes you to run on empty instead of running on faith? And how can you change that?
Maybe it’s your job that just kills your spirit. There’s nothing worse than being stuck in a place that you feel isn’t the right place for you. I was there a while back. I used to teach piano. For years I did it and had the time of my life, I loved it. And then I started working in the ministry half days, and coming home to teach piano in the afternoons, and suddenly the piano lessons were the biggest burden to me. I just couldn’t get into them anymore and I was not enjoying them at all.
I was telling a minister friend and he said to me: “it’s because you need to focus on your pastoral role. That’s where you are called. You’re trying to keep doing something to which you are no longer called, and it is draining you.”
Make a Change
I was running on empty because I was working outside of my calling. I had to make a change. Do you?
Or, is it time to change your attitude towards your job, to look for ways that you can thrive in it instead of being drained by it? Maybe you can’t get out of your situation, and so your answer is to change your approach. Change your mindset so that you don’t just keep getting drained and end up running on empty.
Maybe it’s not a job, maybe there’s a relationship that drains you. Is it time for a conversation with this person and put some changes in place? To tell them where you’re coming from and seek a better way forward? Make a change. Don’t keep running on empty. Have faith to make the change.
Physical Well-being
Maybe it’s more physical. Have you thought of this? Maybe you feel drained because you eat bad food and you don’t exercise. God made you to thrive on healthy food and he made your body to move. Maybe you need to make a change – start eating healthy, start going for walks or go to gym or something – to keep you from running on empty. Food and exercise have a surprisingly powerful effect on your spirituality, friends.
Maybe you’re grieving or depressed. And you need to go get help. You need to speak to somebody. Get counselling. Get prayed for. Get deliverance. Will you take a step in faith today and contact someone to help you, or will you keep trying to run on empty?
The prudent see danger and take refuge. The foolish keep going and pay the penalty.
Don’t pay the penalty. Don’t keep running on empty, when you have the ability to put a change in place.
