We begin our service for the Lord with great energy and enthusiasm. We are so grateful for all that He has done in our life. How could we not serve Him with all of our energies. However, in time, we often become tired and disappointed. We lose our joy and become frustrated with our Christian experience. Usually a pessimistic attitude sets in and we begin to be legalistic with ourselves and with those we are ministering to. We become negative and discouraged. We lost our motivation and just feel worn out. We have trouble studying the Scriptures or being with other Christians. Typically we get "weary" of Christian people.
Service and ministry based on gratitude for what God has done for me in the past has lost its ability to motivate me when I get tired and worn out. Then I develop what John Piper calls the "debtors ethic." I feel like I owe service to God like I owe my house payment. I am not moved by grace anymore, but by legalistic fear that I have to pay God back.
So I push myself. I redouble my efforts. I try harder all the time, feeling guiltier and guiltier because I have lost my early passion.
This is a mistake many Christians make. The key for breaking this cycle is to transform our gratitude into hope. Since God has been faithful with His grace in the past, I can trust that He will give me the grace in the future that will empower me to serve Him. I am grateful for what He has done, but there is nothing to repay. All God wants from me is to have faith that He will be as full of grace for me in the future as He has been in the past.
When I exercise my faith in His future grace, like I have His past grace, then the Holy Spirit is liberated in me to empower the gifts I have been given and accomplishes the work God desires to accomplish through me. My faith in past grace (i.e. the Cross and redemption) is wonderful and effective for my salvation. God's future grace, His power and wisdom and energy through the Holy Spirit, is just as wonderful and effective. My faith for service is not in past grace, but in future grace...the confident assurance that the grace that saved me will also empower me. God will be faithful to all of his promises for grace in the days to come.
Faith in past grace leads to salvation and gratitude. Faith in future grace leads to sanctification, hope and service. Our faith is primarily a future oriented "assurance of things hoped for" (Hebrews 11:1). The grace that saved me in the past is sufficient to sustain me in the future.
This concept of "Future Grace" is something many Christians in the Church have missed. Hope in future grace encouraged me, empowers me and gives me wisdom. It is trusting that the same loving Father who redeemed me through Jesus death will empower me through the Holy Spirit. Satan wants to distract us with the "debtor's ethic." "You ought to..." "You have to..." "How could you do that after all God has done for you?" These are expressions of Satan's lies. "You call yourself a Christian and have those thoughts?" On and on the lies persist. Many Christians recognize the lies, but don't understand the motivational differences between "gratitude for past grace" and "hope in future grace."
The solution for burnout is to focus on the promises of God's future grace. His grace never changes. It is the same today as it was yesterday and it will remain consistent in the future. Focus your hope on the future grace of God and trust Him to be faithful to all of His promises.
If you want to read more on this topic, John Piper wrote a book several years ago entitled FUTURE GRACE. It is an excellent, but big (almost 500 pages) and sometimes too deep for the average guy. But I know that you are above average!
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