Saturday, October 18, 2008

Renewal Notice

Even when things do not turn out according to our plans, we can always trust the Lord's ability to turn them around for good. Dance ministries that have been on the brink of disbanding have been able to pick up the pieces and rebuild with the Lord's intervention. There may be times in ministry when we feel like giving up, or that the sacrafice is too great to continue. We thank the Lord for these times because this is when He can get the glory.

Feeling burned out and overwhelmed by conducting ministry-as-usual is when we must recognize that it is time to be renewed. Our minds, spirits, and bodies must have a time to recuperate and be revived. The body needs fuel for it to operate at maximum capacity. Our spirit man needs spiritual sustenance to function as well. It is permissible to take a few moments to refresh, revive, renew, and be restored. When we do allow for times of refreshing regularly, we may stop dancing when we should be moving even faster.

Although we do not make a practice of complaining about the challenges we face, it is important to express when we experience symptoms of burnout. Jesus Himself had to take some much needed personal time in the midst of intense ministry. Placing the needs of ministry members, church leadership, families, and jobs before our own can result in resentment if we run empty. If we are to serve others, we must do so in a way that will allow us to consistently give our best.

Psalm 51:10 (NKJV)
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Romans 6:4 (NKJV)
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Romans 7:6 (NKJV)
But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

2 Corinthians 3:5-6 (NKJV)
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Titus 3:4-6 (NKJV)
But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior

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