What to do when you’re spiritually empty

This past week I’ve felt like I was running on fumes.  I’ve been running around from place to place and achieving much, but I didn’t feel like I was.  I tried teaching my kids our Bible lessons for the week, and I didn’t feel connected.  I didn’t think they were getting it.

I’ve spent the week bordering on sick.

Then last night I was done.  I couldn’t take any more emotionally.  I was tired, I needed rest and to recharge.

I finally did what I should have been doing all week.  At 11:45 last night I talked to my husband about my struggles.  I prayed.  I read my Bible.

All week long I’ve been listening to sermons, I’ve been doing spiritual things, but I wasn’t feeding myself the way I knew I needed to be.  I NEED to be in HIS WORD.

That’s the whole reason I’m writing this series.  So someone else won’t make the mistake I did, so we can all learn to teach out of the overflow of our hearts.  And I wasn’t.

So I stayed up an extra hour last night and read the book of Hosea.  I’ve been needing to read that for weeks.  It’s the next set of lessons I’m supposed to be preparing, the minor prophets, but I’ve been putting it off.

It’s poetry.  I don’t like poetry.

It’s depressing and angry.  I don’t like depressing and angry.

It’s tiring.  I’m already tired.

But I read it, and I was energized.  Hosea goes through horrible things.  He has bad news to deliver.  He doesn’t get to deliver bad news with the promise of a future.  But for one verse.  There was one verse I had to copy out last night.

So my advice when you know you need to recharge?

1. Pray.  Take some time to pray and seek God.  Do you have the right priorities?  God will show you what you need to take out.  Have you given yourself enough margin?

2.  Talk to your spouse or a trusted friend.  Jeff pointed out some things that I knew, but didn’t want to admit.  I have some responsibilities that I took on, that I wasn’t supposed to.  It is running me ragged.

3.  Read your Bible.  We all heard the song in church as little kids “Read your Bible, pray every day, and you’ll grow, grow, grow.”  I wasn’t reading my Bible.  I was reading other things, but not my Bible.

4.  Take time to rest.  My body has been throwing fits all week.  I was tired or not feeling well almost every day.  I desperately wanted to rest, but I kept telling myself I had too much to do.  Then I wasted time on Facebook.  Last night I stayed up later than any of the other days this week, and today I woke up earlier, but I feel rested.  Why?  Because I finally obeyed.  I didn’t read Percy Jackson until I couldn’t focus my eyes.  I closed that book and opened my Bible.

And read it. And I was refreshed.

NOW I am ready to pour God into my kids, because HE has been poured into me.

• Day 1: Choosing your Bible
• Day 2: Finding the right Bible study for you
• Day 3: Choosing a children’s Bible
• Day 4: Choosing a children’s Bible study
• Day 5: What to do when you’re spiritually empty
• Day 6: Digging Deeper
• Day 7: Live it Out
• Day 8: Sing it Loud
• Day 9: Act it Out
• Day 10: A week in our Bible Study