Blessed Be the Church That Lets You Rest

Have you ever been weary spiritually? Have you ever expended so much spiritual energy for the Lord that you’ve worn yourself out?

I have listened to pastors who have done that very thing. They are "weary to the bone" spiritually. Maybe they were building a church from scratch or raising money to pay off millions of dollars worth of debt on church buildings. Some pastors wear themselves out from counseling, from ministering to the poor, from fighting prejudice in bad neighborhoods. Every day from morning until dark they solve other people’s problems. They miss meals. They miss sleep. They set their own needs aside to tend to their flock.

There was a time when my husband and I lived in a small town where God sent us. We were prayer warriors for the whole city, and God blessed us with new police officers, with righteous school teachers, and with Christian city officials as a result of our work for Him. In fact we were so successful at changing the city with our prayers that the Ministerial Alliance asked my husband to be their president even though he was not a pastor of a church. In that capacity we held city-wide church services, community gospel singing, community Easter services, and the walls between denominations and races began to fall. The last work God gave us to do was to take the city for Him. We divided up the city with a map and directed teams to every street in town. We put the feet of believers on every street to pray and take that street for God until the whole town was the property of God Almighty.

By the time God released us after nine years of ministry we were weary through and through. God had used us up spiritually, and we needed a rest. We needed a rest from spiritual warfare, from intercessory praying, from being watchmen on the walls and much more. After we left that small town and moved back to a larger city we began to seek a new church home. We wanted to be in a large church, a church where we could fade into the furniture. We wanted to be invisible. Eventually we found such a home church.

It had a membership of 2,000 in two services on Sunday morning. For the first several months all we did was cry. The music was so beautiful, and the worship was so anointed that our hearts began to heal. But before the healing began we needed rest. We needed not to tell anyone what our gifts were or where we wanted to serve. Our spiritual tanks were empty. We needed a refilling badly. People asked us what we wanted to do, and we explained that we needed a place to rest. We were the ones who needed ministering to. And people were kind and patient, and they left us alone. They prayed over us. But they didn’t press us. For two years we did nothing at church except to show up and sit in the pew and soak up God’s love.

If you ever come across someone at your church who has been in ministry for awhile and who is worn out spiritually, please have patience with them. Let God refill them in His time. Love them and pray for them. When it’s time for them to minister again, they will. Be the church where God’s ministers can rest and renew. Blessed be the church that lets you rest!

Copyright Gloria Fisher 2011.