Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Guest (Male): Hey everybody, thank you so much for stopping by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren. Today we're going to begin a timely series called Strategies for Stressful Times. In this series, Rick will share timeless truths from God's word that will help you manage stress, overcome worry, and experience the peace and stability that only God can provide.

What do you say we get started? Here is the first part of a message called Finding the Strength to Keep Going when I'm Emotionally Worn Out.

Pastor Rick Warren: Because Daily Hope is heard on hundreds of radio stations around the world and on podcasts, I get a lot of letters every day. I want to read just one of them to start us off in today's message. It said, "Dear Pastor Rick, I listen to your message every day on the Daily Hope program, so I thought I'd write and ask you to pray for me.

With all that our world has been going through in the last year and a half, it seems that everybody I meet has run out of gas emotionally and relationally. Everybody seems to be going through the motions, but you can tell that their heart is not really in it. Everybody is tired and worn out. For me personally, I don't know how much longer I can keep up with the new demands.

I try to look energetic and I try to be positive, but honestly, I'm ready to throw in the towel. I'm ready to give up on my career, my dreams, and even my marriage. What can I do to get my spark back?" You may or may not identify with that letter, but today I want us to look in God's word at finding the strength to keep going when I'm emotionally worn out.

Notice I'm not talking about when you're physically worn out or when you're physically tired. That's a much easier problem to solve. When you're physically tired, you just need rest and relaxation. You just get some time off and get some sleep. But sleep and rest alone will not cure the emotional fatigue, the spiritual fatigue, the relational fatigue that many people are feeling after the last year and a half of massive change in our lives.

What you need is a strategy to recharge your spiritual and emotional battery. There's going to be many times in life when you need to keep going when your mind and your emotions have already shut down. They've shut down from emotional overload or from fatigue and just working too long and putting out too much time and helping too many people.

Today I want us to look at four solutions from God's word about how to keep on going when you feel like giving up. The Bible has a lot to say about developing the qualities of resilience, endurance, and determination. Before we actually look at some secret steps, keys, or principles, I want to give you two examples in scripture of determination to keep going. One is Jesus and the other is the Apostle Paul.

The first is the determination of Jesus to keep going in spite of opposition. Jesus faced constant opposition in his ministry. Both the religious leaders and the political leaders were constantly trying to stop Jesus from teaching and ministering. They didn't want him doing this because he was too popular. At one point, they tried to intimidate Jesus to stop his ministry by telling him King Herod wanted to kill him.

In Luke chapter 13, verses 32 and 33, we find Jesus' response when they came and were trying to intimidate him and get him to stop keeping on. Jesus said, "I want you to go back to Herod"—he called him that old fox—and he said, "I want you to tell King Herod this: I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow and on the next day, and then I'll reach my goal."

In any case, Jesus says, "I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day." Jesus said nothing's going to stop me, least of all a fear of somebody else or some kind of criticism or opposition. Jesus had the quality of resilience, endurance, and determination to keep on keeping on.

The second example we have is the determination of Paul. Paul was determined to keep going in spite of pain. We find that in Second Corinthians chapter 4, verses 8 and 9. Paul says there in the New Living Translation, "We are hard pressed on every side by troubles." Does that sound familiar? Maybe you feel right now you're hard pressed on every side by troubles. It's coming at you from many different directions.

Paul says, "We're hard pressed on every side by troubles, but we're not crushed and broken." Then he says, "We're perplexed," in other words, sometimes we're confused and we don't know which way to go, but he says, "We don't give up and quit." That's determination. "We're hunted down, but God never abandons us. Yes, we get knocked down, but we get up again and we keep going." Both Jesus and Paul use this phrase of how to keep going.

Where do I get the strength to keep going when I feel like I'm tired and worn out and I don't have the emotional energy to keep doing? The answer is you get the power and the strength to keep going from the same place Jesus and Paul got it. You get it from God. That's just the simple answer.

There are actually four key actions and attitudes that you're going to need to make it to your finish line, to have the strength to keep on keeping on in the things you know God wants you to do when you feel like giving up. The first key to the daily strength that you're going to need to keep going in a time of crisis, conflict, or chronic stress is to honestly tell God what I'm feeling.

That's the starting point. You start with just being honest with God. Honestly tell God what I'm feeling right now. "I'm running out of energy, I'm running out of gas." You don't tell him what you think you ought to feel, you admit what you're really feeling. Are you feeling frustrated? Tell God. Are you feeling exhausted? Tell that to him.

Do you feel like you can't go on like this? Tell him. Do you feel like you're under attack? Tell God. Do you feel like you're discouraged? Tell God. Do you feel overwhelmed? Tell God. You just go ahead and dump everything you're feeling right now on the Lord. You say, "Can I actually do that?" The Bible says so.

First Peter 5:7 in the New Jerusalem Translation says, "Unload all your burdens on him since he is concerned about you." I love that. Unload. That word in the Greek, in which the Bible was originally written, means literally drop it. You let it go. It's not like you're throwing it a long distance, it's like if you're carrying a big boulder and you just let it go. You dump it. You unburden yourself.

The Bible says that when you feel overstressed, overworried, or overburdened, you just let it go. How do you do that? By being honest with God. Sometimes it's intimidating being honest with God. We kind of pretend like God doesn't really know everything in our lives. If you're going to be truly honest with God, you need to remember three facts.

Number one: God already knows every emotion I feel. Write that down. The Bible says in Psalm 33 verse 15, "The Lord gave each of us our mind, so nothing we can do can be hidden from him." Since God created your mind, obviously he can read it. Nothing can be hidden from God. You're not ever going to surprise him. When you start telling God exactly how you feel right now, he's never going to say, "Wow, I didn't know that. That's a surprise to me."

Confessing my feelings to God is not for God's benefit. It's always for my benefit because God already knows. Why does God want me to unburden, why does he want me to unload, why does he want me to confess and admit the stress that I'm under? It's for my benefit. When you talk it out to God, it relieves a lot of unconscious tension and internal conflict.

God not only knows everything I'm feeling before I even mention it, he also understands my feelings better than I do. You have the feelings, but God understands them better than you do. First Chronicles chapter 28 verse 9 says, "The Lord knows what's in everybody's mind and he understands everything you think."

I certainly don't understand everything I think. I doubt you understand everything you think. A lot of times we have thoughts and we wonder where they came from or what they mean. When you have an emotion, a lot of times you wonder why you feel that way. We don't always understand, but God always understands your emotions because he gave them to you.

The only reason you have emotions is because you're made in God's image. God is an emotional God. The Bible says God gets jealous, he gets angry, and he gets sad. The Bible says God laughs. All these emotions are appropriate in their right place. Every emotion you have is God-given. They can be misused or abused to hurt people, but your ability to feel emotion is part of being human.

Your reticence to tell God what you're feeling really is unnecessary because God already knows what you're feeling and he understands your feelings better than you do. The third fact you need to realize and remember is this: God loves to listen to me. Write that down. Did you know that? In Psalm 116 verses 1 and 2, David says, "I love the Lord because he listens to my prayers. He listens to me every time I call to him."

God is a listening God. That's a third reason why you should tell God exactly what you're feeling every day. God is never too busy for a conversation with you. You get too busy for a conversation with him, but he is never too busy for a conversation with you. God has an unlimited data plan. He doesn't have call waiting or a recording. He's always attentive and always ready to have a conversation.

The truth is God is always waiting on you to talk. God is never going to say, "Not now. I can't talk about it. I'm busy. Can you talk to me a little bit later?" God is waiting to talk to you. You say, "Well, what about when I'm just complaining?" He still listens. The Bible says that God listens to your complaint. When you complain, he is listening.

That's a prayer. Can a prayer be a complaint? A lot of the Psalms are complaints of David. In Psalm 55 verse 17, David says, "Morning, noon, and night I complain of my distress, and still the Lord hears my voice." Listen to me. God can handle your complaints. He can handle your frustrations and your doubts. He can handle your fears. He's not going to be upset with you. He can handle your questions, your grief, your discouragement, your struggles, and your depression.

He made you to love you. You can't make God stop loving you. You can try, but you'll fail because God's love is based on who he is. Psalm 103 verse 13 says, "The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate." I love that verse. As a father, I love it when my kids, who are now adults, want to talk to me about anything.

I especially love it when they want to talk to me about their feelings and tell me what's going on in their heart. God loves that too, when you are honestly free with telling God how you really feel. You tell God what's really on your heart. Psalm 145 verse 9 says, "The Lord is good to everyone and he shows compassion to all he has made."

The Lord is good to everyone. He shows good things to everybody, even those who are rejecting him or are mad at him. Because God knows every feeling you already have, he understands every feeling, and he loves to listen to us and even our complaints about stress and change, God tells us to come quickly to him whenever we're stressed or at the end of our rope.

Whenever you're distressed, Lamentations chapter 2 verse 19 says, "Cry out to God. 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. Do you hear the passion and the urgency in that verse?

He says, "Cry out." Not mumble some memorized prayer for "the gift and the giver." He says, "Cry out." Say, "God, 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 with God.

This is the first key to gaining daily strength, the strength that you need in order to keep going and make it to the finish line and finish well in your life. Humbly ask God for strength. There's an action step and there's an attitude with each of these four keys. Psalm 105 verse 4 says, "Look to the Lord and to his strength."

He says, "Don't look for any other source for emotional strength. Look to the Lord for his strength." Who are you looking to for emotional strength in your life? Job chapter 12 verse 13 says, "God is the real source of wisdom and strength." God is the real source. Why keep asking other people for strength?

If God is the real source of strength in your life—emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical strength—why not keep asking for strength literally throughout your day? Not just once in the morning or once at night, but throughout the day. "God, I need strength as I'm going into this meeting. God, I need strength as I'm doing this doctor's appointment. God, I need strength as I'm picking up the kids. God, I need strength as I'm preparing this task."

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 20 times in the New Testament we are commanded by God to ask? Ask in prayer. The Bible says, "Ask and it shall be given, seek and you'll find, knock and the door will be opened."

Jesus said, "If you ask for anything in my name, I will do it." Jesus said, "Ask so that your joy will be full." 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. When you are emotionally empty, you have the inability to get to sleep.

Studies have confirmed that the more depleted you are emotionally, the harder it is for you to get to sleep or to stay asleep. Your relationship with God can affect your sleep. When you're out of fellowship with God, when you are estranged from God, or when you're at war with God, your body recognizes that even if you aren't consciously aware of the conflict.

Your body takes it out. But when you're in harmony with God, you get the peace and you get the strength of God, which leads to better sleep. King David was a fugitive. He was running for his life. People were trying to kill him and he was hiding in caves. During that time, he wrote these words in Psalm chapter 3 verse 5: "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? Here is the second way you can gain new strength to keep going when you feel like...