Don’t you just love to care for others in your ministry? As a church leader I find that the time I invest in building up the people God has entrusted me to care and love is both an honor and a joy.
In caring for your church, you can easily neglect to care of yourself. Also, who goes out of the way to say thank you for taking care of yourself? When you go to the hospital at 2 a.m. to pray with a member of your church, does anyone care or thank you? In most cases, your family and your church do appreciate all you do—and of course God recognizes your sacrifices.
When you don’t take time to care for yourself, you rob yourself of the opportunity to better care for others. There’s always a holiday season, something important happening, or somebody who needs you. However, if you always sacrifice yourself to take care of these needs, you might not be there for the long haul of caring for others the way God is asking.
I can preach to the choir about the Sabbath which God commands, but in today’s world, most of us don’t rest much on Sundays. We can rest when we are dead, right?
1 Corinthians 3:16,17, ESV reads, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”
Do not destroy God’s temple.
Without pulling statistics, how many in ministry have experienced burn-out, marital troubles (or even divorce), dropped out of ministry, and even left the faith? We wonder what impact taking care of themselves could have had in those situations. Maybe there would have been no difference, but perhaps it could have changed the outcome entirely.
Church leader, what are you doing to care for yourself? In life, it doesn’t suddenly get more convenient to schedule time, make time, prioritize time, or fulfill time. Your family, your church, and your God will approve of your taking time to care for your own needs. When we take time to rest, we are being obedient to God and caring for His temple. When we don’t allow ourselves some time to relax, we become disobedient.
So, take some time to relax, and enjoy the knowledge that you are listening to God and have the honor of resting in His peace.
