My yoke is easy and my burden is light

LOOKING AT LIFE AND LEADERSHIP FROM GOD’S POINT OF VIEW

HOW TO TAKE THE PRESSURE OFF YOURSELF

Dale Walker Blog: Higher Perspectives Series

All of us know what it is like when we feel we need to show up and shine big. Whether it’s giving a sermon, making a presentation, closing a deal, or helping someone who is looking to us for help, we feel stressed and overwhelmed. I remember hearing one minister say she felt like she would die a thousand deaths before she got up to minister.

Certainly, in these times, it’s right to want to do our very best. Yet, I believe Jesus wants us to learn to let the burden of performing rest on His shoulders. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus teaches us that He wants to give us rest. The writer of Hebrews tells us to “labor to enter the rest” by living by faith in what God has done and promises He will do. We don’t just work for rest, but we’re to work from rest. I love the fact that in the Old Testament, the priests were not to wear wool because the Lord didn’t want them to sweat. God doesn’t want us to sweat it out but to ride the wave of His grace.

I remember an experience from my teenage years; I was swimming at the beach when a rip tide started to pull me out to sea.  I panicked, and what seemed like a long time, I paddled furiously with all my might to break free from the ocean’s grip.  At a point when I felt exhausted, I quit paddling to see if I had been carried out to sea. Surprisingly, I was almost on the shore, and when I stood up, I was in less than 3 feet of water. I felt silly as I stood up and entered the rest. I find myself prone to be like this when I’m getting ready to preach or prepare to lead an important event. I’ve been known to lose hours of sleep and be a person who is no fun to be around because of the stress I wear.

A few ways to change our perspective and enter His rest:

I especially like to remember God meeting Jeremiah when he was at one of these sweating points. Here are some ways God changed Jeremiah’s perspective to bring him to victory.

1. Be careful about what you tell yourself.

In Jeremiah 1:6, Jeremiah, when called as a prophet said, “O Sovereign Lord,” I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!” The Lord told Jeremiah not to speak those words. God promised that He was the one sending him; Jeremiah would only need to say what the Lord told him to say. He would protect Jeremiah and even put His words in his mouth. This is what the Lord wanted Jeremiah to believe and tell himself.

2. Don’t compare yourself with others or strive to be what you think people want you to be. 

In Jeremiah 1:8, God tells Jeremiah to “not be afraid of their faces.” I take that to mean, don’t let what people think or what you think people think control how you carry out your assignment. The Bible speaks of the fear of man as being a curse we don’t have to walk under.

I know I have faced, like many of you, what has been referred to as the “imposter syndrome,” where you have a persistent fear, sometimes driven by perfectionism, in which you fear being exposed as a “fraud” and not as capable as others. Many times this leads you to try and be like somebody else instead of being comfortable in your own skin.

I believe Paul was challenged in this way as he was compared with “super apostles” (who claimed superiority).  Paul called all his weaknesses and inadequacies a thorn in the flesh that God would use. He said he would boast in his weakness, because when we’re weak, God’s strength is made perfect through us. God doesn’t choose us or use us because we’re great but because He’s great, and that becomes revealed when He uses “earthen vessels” like us.

• Remind yourself of how much God delights in you and celebrates you just as you are. Your sincere heart (even with your limited talent) is something He is pleased with you beyond measure.  He is pleased just because you seek to please Him. I remember hearing of a pastor who had a tough Sunday, in which he felt like he just bombed the message. That night during sleep, he saw himself preaching that same sermon on a stage in a huge auditorium like Carnegie Hall. He gasped inside when suddenly he saw someone on the top row giving him a standing ovation. As he zeroed in on who it was, he recognized it was Jesus, so excitedly cheering his message like an overenthusiastic cheerleader.

• God is pleased when we take the pressure off ourselves to “wax eloquent.” He wants us to become less in our own eyes so He can become more through us. He wants us to be less aware of our performance and what people are going to think and more aware of His glory and desire to love and bless people. He wants us to be okay with just being a simple friend, willing to tell other friends about the Savior, who has all the answers to their needs.

• William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, said, “We are just one beggar telling other beggars where the bread is.” Our confidence is in the fact that God will come and use our simple witness and outshine our deficiencies because of His love for people. If we are just humbly willing to show up, He will show off in ways that will give Him glory.

In the filming of the classic, epic movie, “Ben-Hur,” Charlton Heston was very concerned about the chariot race scene. He told the movie director that he had never done a chariot race and didn’t know how he could possibly win. The director told him, “Charlton, your job is to stay in the chariot, my job is to see to it that you win.” In the same way, our job is to let God carry the pressure. Dare to abide in Jesus by radically believing He is working in, for, around, and through you for His glory. Just give what you feel He has given you to give. He has made it His personal assignment to see that your mission is successful.