Prayer For Those Experiencing Burnout

 Burn-Out

We want to pray today about burnout. Burnout is commonly described as an exhausted state in which a person loses interest in a particular activity and even in life in general. It’s often the result of a period of hard and long work at a particular task, often with extra challenges, and there seems no end in sight to the demand and pressure. 

A few days ago it was announced that a local COVID-19 testing site was closing down because the staff were burnt out.  They had temporarily added in the testing for the virus to their other duties and now many months later, all the overtime work of testing and analyzing test kits and challenges of keeping the virus at bay in their surroundings has taken its toll on the staff.  “With our limited staff and resources, we are no longer able to continue running our testing site because our doctors are burnt out and our staff are overworked.”  We pray for those hard working folks that solutions will come for them. 

We also think today of

·      Parents with sick kids up in the night – night after night.

·      Parents feeling the pressure of working from home and home schooling their kids – with increased risk in schools, it’s hard to sent the kids there

·      Caregivers of aging parents and those with disabilities have so much more to do during this time of physical distancing

·      Changes in workplaces have resulted in high unemployment and there are individuals working 3 jobs to pay the bills and keep food on the table

·      Pastors and spiritual leaders who are working flat out to do all the normal duties of simply providing a weekly worship service in a new way and then having all the pastoral demands of a congregation of folks under stress needing support

·      Looking for employment as benefits stop or change

·      Shop clerks and others like them face the public every day and even with a plexiglass shield between them and an individual customer there are so many risks

·      Police and first responders have no idea what they will encounter when they are called out to an emergency.  Many life saving procedures force them to work without the benefit of social distancing

Lord, in your mercy, look on each of these mentioned and all the other categories of folks we can’t even list today.  We pray that in grace and mercy each of these would find a way to both work and rest and find balance in Your blessing. 

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.  Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

Hebrews 4:9-11

I don’t know how this can be achieved in some of these circumstances but I pray that You will sustain the weary and lift up those who are struggling today and are so weary they don’t know how to go on.  Help them to find the rest of heart and mind that You are providing today.  We bless them to be strong and do what You are instructing when You say to “strive to enter that rest” so we rest as You intend even during these very challenging times. We pray for wisdom to say “no, ” when to say “enough,” for grace to “go the extra mile” when that is actually required, and for wisdom to know how to balance it all. 

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

James 1:5

You promise wisdom when we ask for it and certainly wisdom is needed to know what to do and what to leave undone for so many people during these stressful days.  I pray that folks will call out to You during these difficult times and listen for the still small voice of Your Holy Spirit who will guide them and strengthen them and know that You are caring for them in the middle of these times of heavy challenges.

The Sovereign LORD has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. 

Isaiah 50:4

And Lord, the work of encouragement is given to us as well so would You help us each to do our part to be those who comfort and encourage and who do all we can to lift up and not tear down.  Irritated words and behaviours can come so easily when we’re tired but I pray that You will bless us to see Your heart each day, draw strength from Your presence and Your control of all things, and then walk among our communities with peace and cheerfulness that is truly from the heart.  Keep us from putting on a face when our hearts are heavy and burdened but help us to deal daily with the burdens and let You carry all the load You promise to do.

So as we close these moments of prayer we speak to our own soul and say:  

Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you. For you, Lord, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

Psalm 116:7-9

And we bless one another with Your blessing God,

Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Hebrews 13:20-21

From a person who got burned out in ministry, even to the point of attempting suicide, please let me implore anyone who is struggling today to call and get help.  Call your pastor, call a crisis line, call a praying friend.  No one will have all the answers and all the solutions but just knowing someone cares and is willing to be with you as you journey through these days helps.  Decades down the line from that fateful day when I attempted suicide I also want to assure you that there is an end to what is going on and there are many times of blessing and joy to come.  Don’t give up.  Seek help.  Let go of anything that doesn’t really need doing today.  God cares for you and He has a way forward for you that is focused on your well-being not just on the things that need doing.