Becoming a Well-Watered Woman in a Parched World – Day 5

Welcome back! It’s day five of Becoming a Well-Watered Woman in a Parched World, and we’re getting close to the end of the week! If you’ve been following along, I’m so touched you’re here!

Diving right into this devo, the title is Moving Beyond Burnout. The first four words of the devo are, “Are you experiencing burnout?” Yes, girl, yes I am. Not necessarily about ministry. Ministry has always been on my heart and the heart of my husband, but our current life situation is exhausting and discouraging, and we’re really feeling the burnout. It’s hard to stay motivated in situations like this; I’m sure you know what I’m talking about, I think burnout can be pretty common. 

So I’m sure you know the story of Mary and Martha when Jesus visits their home. But if not, Mary sat at the feet of Jesus as he taught while Martha was cleaning, getting some dinner ready, doing some housework. She comes to where Mary and Jesus were sitting, and says, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me.” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Our devo today talks about this story, and it says, “The point of this story isn’t just to be more like Mary and less like Martha. The point is to be like Jesus, choosing what is best in this life and leaving behind everything that lessons our love for him.” 

Our girl Martha was experiencing burnout, for sure. She was agitated that her sister wasn’t helping, and she was asking for some back up. Sometimes we prioritize our to-do list over Jesus. The devo says, “But even when the fire of your heart becomes mere ashes from saying yes too much, Jesus’ love will spark your joy back to life.” Later on it says, “When we begin to see the glory of God in all things, including the small things and the hard things, the joy of this realization will spill over into every area of life. We will learn that we don’t have to live in defense mode. We can intentionally protect our love for Christ like never before.”

Jesus is urging us to come back to his heart, to pursue his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. He’s asking that we pursue him, the most important being of all eternity.