A Day-by-day devotional

June 29, 2023

Check-points

Chronological One Year Bible Reading Plan: Isaiah 13-16

Scripture of the Day: Jeremiah 6:16

There are times when life can be mundane. Your daily routines could suddenly become tedious and uninteresting. Although you are used to doing them, and are able to carry them out with your eyes closed, they can still overwhelm you.

As busybodies in a seemingly fast-paced world, burn-out is a real thing. In order to cope with the humongous pile of work and challenges lying in front of us, we often choose to shove them aside than deal with them. We procrastinate facing the problem because it takes much more energy and effort to solve them than to carry on with our routine.

Until suddenly, one day, we wake up and it hits us hard. We have two options – either we finally brave the storm, or just duck and let it fly over our head thinking it would later go away. Bad news for the latter move is that, more often than not, the clouds do not budge an inch. They just change appearance but the rain still lurks behind only to pour out again sometime.

Life is that way. We could lose interest in the things we use to have a great desire for, are deeply passionate about, and genuinely love. All because we fail to make check-points along the way.

Take church ministry for example. We might start out with fire that could make a raging forest fire appear like a lighted matchstick. As time goes by, we can become too exhausted especially if we fail to allow ourselves some rest. This often happens to a one-man ministry team, or an-all-hats-wearing minister.

This can be prevented if we regularly check our goals and purpose. When we start with a ministry, our goal is to give God the glory. Our purpose is to make His goodness known. However, with time, we could lose focus and the ministry becomes our life and purpose. It is no longer entirely about God. The ministry transcended from being an avenue to serve God to being the one we serve and live for.

This, also applies to life in general. When we shift our focus from our purpose to our success, the things that we do could actually become an idol and take the place of God in our lives. When the idol takes control, it becomes exhausting, and the fire is extinguished. When we serve idols, our efforts would always be never good enough. In contrast, when we serve God, there is always the joy that rises up out of the love emanating from deep within our purpose. The joy gives us strength (Nehemiah 8:10).

Reflection: If you are in the verge of burn-out, move a few steps back and re-examine your goals and purpose. Recenter them accordingly.

Prayer: Dear God, I thank you for the strength that you provide me every day. May I never lose the wonder of you, aiming to live for you, and not my purpose. Amen.