Rick Warren - Finding the Strength to Keep Going When I'm Emotionally Worn Out—Part Two

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of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we continue in our series

called Strategies for Stressful Times. In these lessons, Rick SHARE's

biblical wisdom for navigating difficult and stressful times so that

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and four. Now here's Pastor Rick Morin with part two

of a message called finding the Strength to Keep going

when I'm emotionally worn out.

Psalm one five, verse nine says this on the screen.

The Lord is good to everyone, and he shows compassion

to all he has made. Did you get that The

Lord is good to everyone. He shows good things to everybody,

even those who are atheists, who don't believe in him,

or whatever, who are rejecting him, who are mad at him.

The Lord is good to everyone. And he shows compassion

to all he has made. By the way, If God

is good to everybody, and he shows compassion to all

he's made, shouldn't you and I do the same with

people we disagree with? Do you show compassion to people

you disagree with? Are you good to people who you

think are an enemy? God is good to everyone and

compassionate with everyone. Now, because God knows every feeling you

already have. And God understands every feeling, and he knows

better than you do. And God loves to listen to

us and even our complaints about stress and everything else

and change, and he's always listening. Then God tells us

to come quickly to him whenever we're stressed, whenever we're

at the end of our rope, and we're ever ready

to throw in the towels. That letter said whenever you're distressed. Lamentations,

Chapter two, verse nineteen says, this cry out to God,

cry out in the night, pour out. Can you hear

this cry out in the night? Pour out your heart

like water in prayer to the Lord. Have you been

doing that? If you haven't, that's one of the reasons

why you may be emotionally dry and drained and that

do you hear the passion in that verse? Do you

hear the urgency in that verse that God wants you

to have? He says, cry out, not mumblesome, memorized cliche

prayer for the gift and the giver and bless us

food to the nourishment of our bodies and online. No,

he says, cry out, say God, help me, help me.

I don't know if I can keep going or not.

It's just too hard. I'm about to lose it. I'm

at the end of my rope. I'm out of options.

I can't handle this. That's being honest to God. Now,

this is the first key to gaining daily strength, the

daily strength that you need in order to keep going

and make it to the finish line and finish well

in your life. And the first key is this, honestly

tell God what I'm feeling. Now. The second key to

daily strength that you're gonna need to keep going is this.

You don't just honestly tell God what you're feeling. Number two,

you humbly ask God for strength. I humbly ask God

for strength. There's an action step and there's an attitude

with each of these four keys. Psalm one h five

verse for us as this look to the Lord and

to his strength. That's pretty clear, He says, you know,

don't look for any other source for emotional strength. Look

to the Lord. Who are you looking to for emotional

strength in your life? Look to the Lord for his strength.

Job Chapter twelve, Verse thirteen says this God is the

real source of wisdom and strength. God is the real source.

So why don't you keep Why do you keep asking

other people for support and for strength? God is the

real source. Why don't If God is the real source

of strength in your life, emotional, spiritual, mental, physical strength,

why don't you keep asking for strength literally throughout your day?

Not just once in the morning or once at night.

Why not throughout the day? God, I needs strength as

I'm going into this meeting. God, I need strength as

I'm doing this doctor's appointment. God, I needs strength as

I'm picking up the kids. God, I need strength as

I'm preparing this task or this meal or whatever. You know,

the Bible says, you do not have it because you

don't ask God for it. You have not because you

ask not. Did you know that about twenty times in

the New Testament we are commanded by God to ask

We are commanded about twenty times to ask in prayer.

The Bible says, ask and it shall be given. Seek

and you'll find, Knock and the door will be open.

Jesus said, if you ask for anything in my name,

I will do it. Jesus said, ask so that your

joy will be full. You know, this week I was

reading an article that said, one of the primary symptoms

of emotional fatigue and emotional stress is often sleeplessness. It's

insomnia that when you are emotionally empty, when your tank

is empty, you have the inability to get to sleep. Now,

studies have confirmed this. Scientific studies have confirmed that the

more depleted you are emotionally, the harder it is for

you to get to sleep or to stay asleep. And

when I saw that, I thought, man, the impact of

COVID and all the changes in our world has probably

left millions of people sleep deprived.

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And now here's Pastor Rick Warren with the second half

of today's lesson.

Now, you may have never realized this, but did you

know that your relationship with God can affect your sleep

When you're out of fellowship with God, when you are

estranged from God, when you're at war with God, he

tells you do something you know I don't want to

do it. When you're in rebellion against God, did you

know that your body recognizes that even if you aren't

consciously aware of the conflict, and your body takes it out.

But when you're in harmony with God, you get the

peace and you get the strength of God and the

peace and the strength of God. Do you know what

it does? It leads to better sleep. You know. I

give you an example of this. When King David was

a fugitive. He's running for his life. People were trying

to kill him, and he's running for his life and

he's hiding in caves. During that time, he wrote these

words Psalm chapter three, verse five. He says, I can

lay down, I can lie down and go to sleep,

and I'll wake up again because the Lord gives me strength.

See the connection between God giving you strength and you

being able to sleep. So here's the second way you

can gain new strength to keep going. When you feel

like I don't know if I've got the energy to

keep going, keep asking God for strength every day, over

and over and over. God will never get tired. You

can ask him fifty times or one hundred times a day.

So I'm one thirty eight. Verse three says this, when

I pray, you answer me, and you encourage me by

giving me the strength I need. How do I get

strength and need by asking for it in prayer? So

I humbly ask God for strength, just like I honestly

tell God what I'm feeling. Now I told you that

there's a corresponding attitude for each of these four actions

in developing resilience, in developing endurance, and developing an attitude

of continuing to keep on, keep on. One of these

attitudes is seen in the life of Daniel. There on

your outline and Daniel, chapter ten Versus eleven and twelve.

God told this to Daniel. Daniel was in a situation

where he was under enormous stress in his culture, and

God says this to Daniel, Oh, Daniel, greatly loved of God.

By the way, you're greatly loved by God, Oh Daniel,

greatly loved of God. Listen carefully. Since the first day

you began to pray and humble yourself before your God,

your request has been heard in heaven. He said, you

know what, You've been praying for this for a long time.

I heard the request, we answered it, decided to answer

it instantly. But notice, he said, when you prayed and

you humbled yourself before God, circle that word humbled. And

then I want you to write down this next truth,

the attitude that moves God to answer your prayers. Are

you ready for this is humility, the attitude that moves

God to answer your prayers. Is humility. God, I'm depending

on you, I'm trusting in You. I can't do this

on my own. I don't have the wherewithal I don't

have the emotional energy to keep on keeping on. That

admission is humility. So let's just review. If I need

strength to keep going, and all of us do, You're

going to need it this week? How do I have

the strength to keep going when I want to just

do nothing? Number One, Honestly tell God what I'm feeling

and humbly ask God for his strength. Now here's the

third key that the Bible teaches us to having the

daily strength that you need to keep going when you're

under stress or in times of great change. Here's the

third key. Number three, Gratefully thank God. Gratefully thank God

for all that's good despite all that's bad. Let me

say that again. The third key to having the strength

strength to keep going is to gratefully thank God for

all that's good despite all that's bad. It's a matter

of choosing what you think about, because the world is

filled with both good and bad. Now here's the principle.

In First Thessalonians five eighteen, the Bible says this give

thanks in all circumstances. What does that not include none,

give thanks in all? I looked up the word all.

It means all, give thanks in all circumstances. For this

is God's will for you. In Christ Jesus. People always say,

I want to know God's will. What's God's will for

my life? There it is God's will for your life.

Is the attitude of gratitude to give thanks in all situations,

in all circumstances. Now, notice don't misread that verse. It

doesn't say for all things give thanks. It says in

all things give thanks, give thanks in all circumstances. Doesn't

say give thanks for all circumstances. You get cancer, you

don't have to be thankful for that. A little child

is molested, you don't have to be thankful for that.

Somebody gets in an accident, you have to be thankful. Now,

that's actually ridiculous. I mean, that's evil. You don't have

to be thankful for evil. It doesn't say give thanks

for everything. There's a lot of things that we shouldn't

be thankful for. But it says in all circumstances, circle

that in all circumstances, it is God's will for me

to develop the attitude of gratitude. And this is the

third key to keeping on. You know, I've been in

ministry now fifty two years. How have I been able

to keep my joy? This is one of the principles

the attitude of gratitude. A number of scientific studies have

concluded that the attitude of gratitude is the healthiest emotion

that humans can have. In fact, every time you take

time to express gratitude about anything, to anyone, to God,

or to anybody else. Every time you take time to

express gratitude, it helps refill your empty emotional gas tank

for your own good. You need to develop the attitude

of gratitude. It's one of the four keys to keeping on,

keeping on, to having the strength to make it to

the finished line. One of the most practical yet powerful

habits that you can develop is to make a daily

gratitude list. To sit down for five minutes each day

and go, Okay, what am I grateful for? And you

start making a list of things that you're thankful for

that will strengthen your soul. Okay, This is the third

key to having the energy, emotional energy to keep on

keeping on. Now, it's easy to be grateful obviously, when

your emotional tank is full and things are going great

in your life and you don't have any problems or

just a few of them, and it's much harder to

find things to be thankful for when you're in a

crisis or when you're facing a prolonged chronic stress. But

when you're worn out, Listen, when you're worn out, or

when you're experiencing burnout, emotional burnout, and you just got

the bloss that's when you need the tool of gratitude

the most to help refill your empty emotional gas tank. Now,

the greatest example of gratitude, and this principle is found

in the life of Job. Remember the story of Job.

Job was the wealthiest man of his generation, very great,

great man, very successful man. But he lost everything in

a single day. And he did know why. What happened

in a single day with Job's all of his children

were murdered by terrorists, all of his crops, all of

his livestock, and his home was completely destroyed in a

single day. And on that same day, Job contracted a painful,

deadly disease. You talk about having a bad day. His

life literally collapsed overnight, and Job had every reason to

be angry and to be bitter because nothing made sense.

Here he is serving God, doing the right things. He

was a just man, the Bible said, but nothing made sense.

He literally lost everything in his life, and one day,

what did Job do? He did this third point when

he was in a situation where he was going, I

don't know if I've got strength to go on. What

he did is he gratefully worshiped God when everything around

him did not make sense. Obviously, it's easy to worship

God when everything's going your way, but while how do

you worship God when everything's not going your way? Job

chapter one, verses twenty to twenty two. It says this

that in grief, Job tore his robe and shaved his head.

Then he fell to the ground and he worshiped God.

Is that a strange thing to do in the middle

of having lost everything in your life? He fell to

the ground and worshiped God. And here's what he said.

Here's Job's perspective. I was born with nothing, and I'm

going to die with nothing. The Lord gave and now

the Lord is taken away. May the name of the

Lord be praised. That's gratitude in spite of everything. The

Bible says that it happened. This is the next verse.

In spite of everything that had happened, Job did not

sin by blaming God. Now, if you're taking notes right

now on your outline, I want you to circle the

phrase praised in spite of everything. Circle that phrase he

praised in spite of everything? Do you do that? Or

do you only thank God when things are going good

in your life? You see, throughout this book, Job expresses

trust and praise and gratitude to God even when he

has no idea why all these problems and tragedies are

happening in his life, one right after another. And when

Job could not find anything, any circumstance that he could

be grateful for, he just got invite it. He lost

it all. What does he do? He expresses gratitude for

God's character. He expresses God for what he knew God

was really like. Now, that is a lesson we all

need to learn. When you're going through a time and

you go, I can't find anything in my life to

be thankful for. Well, I bet you could. Okay, I

bet you could. But if you were not able to

find anything you could be thankful for in your life,

you could still be thankful for who God is, and

Job shows us that in spite of how I feel,

I can always be grateful. I've listed just three or

four of the things he's grateful for in the book

of Job. They're about fifteen, but Job says, I can

always be grateful that God is loving and cares for me.

Job ten twelve. God is loving and cares for me,

and I know that even when things are going wrong

in my life, God is a loving God and he

cares for me. I can be grateful for that. Then

Job twenty three fourteen, I can be grateful that God

has a detailed plan for my future. I can't see it,

but because I know God's good God, and he has

a plan form life, it's a good plan. He has

a detailed plan for my life. In Joe thirty four thirteen,

I can be grateful that God is in control of

what I don't understand. That's been comforting with me so

many times. God's in control of what I don't understand.

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