Have you been feeling weary lately?
Trying to serve others for God, trying to accomplish so much, but you’re tired and exhausted?
You’ve worked your whole life for your family, for your church, for everyone around you. For them to see the gospel, to be a godly example to them, and an amazing man to the world. You’ve worked and worked and worked your guts out. When everyone else was giving up, bowing out, you’d continue to serve and lead in a godly manner.
You’re a great dad, good husband, amazing elder in your church. You’ve accomplished so much.
You keep going because people need you, the world needs you, the church needs you, but you don’t know how much longer you can go on like this. You’re not a machine, you’re a person, don’t they realize this? Why don’t they see how much you’ve done? How much you’ve sacrificed for them? Why do they take you for granted? Why can’t they see you’ve done all this for THEM?
With all the demands and pressures in your life, it become so easy to be burned out. More importantly, if not fixed, it can lead to bitterness creeping in, which will destroy your whole ministry completely.
We have to learn to balance ministry and FUN!! 🎉 Balance God’s kingdom work, the example we display to the world and within our own families with the things YOU like to do.
God NEVER calls us to work all the time and never have fun. He wants us to be happy, to exult in Him. He wants us to enjoy what He’s created for us. Mountains, streams, oceans, forests. These are all things He created and while they have a purpose (Isaiah 40:12), they should also be enjoyed.
Having fun is a part of life, so is working for His kingdom as a believer, and we must balance the two continually…daily!
Here are 30 encouraging Bible verses for the exhausted ministry leader, one for each day of the month to uplift and refresh you! Take the time to read them daily, to encourage your soul and your heart and you strive to create that balance in your life.
30 Bible Verses For The Exhausted Ministry Leader
Reading God’s Word is not only essential for a Christian, but will also fill up your soul, so you aren’t running on fumes and powering through the day anymore.
I wanted to give you 30 verses specifically because there are 30 days in every month – on the 31 day months, you can reflect on the previous verses you have read! You can read one verse each day, start your morning routine by reading His Word and asking Him to strengthen you and give you HIS mindset, I promise, it makes all the difference in the world.
No matter what you are going through or how tough things seem, know that you aren’t alone, and God wants you to THRIVE in your position. He wants you to bring your weariness to Him, to get enough rest and balance your work with fun so He can uplift you and know that you don’t have to do it all on your own. To truly find your respite and rest in Him and Him alone.
Here are 30 great Bible verses to read if you are feeling exhausted, burdened, and weary…
1. 1 Peter 5:7
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
First and foremost, we want to make sure we aren’t trying to hold onto our anxiety or worries. God tells us that we can freely cast our cares on Him. And not only that, but we can because He actually CARES for us? Once you truly grasp this principle, it will literally change your life.
We don’t have to hold on to that weight anymore!
No longer do you feel the need to control things and people around you.
No longer do you feel the need to pray a bunch of requests to God, asking Him to do this or do that because you know that He sees the whole situation and He’s got it all under control.
You begin to trust Him more and more with your life, with your circumstances, and it’s an amazing thing. You get…peace (John 14:27)!
For me personally, I picture in my mind that I’m kneeling there before God Almighty, who is seated on His throne in Heaven and I’m giving Him a gift. The gift is my burden, my hardship, my struggle, my pain. I give it to Him and let Him do with it whatever He wants to do.
I don’t pray and ask Him for anything or make any request about it. I simply give it to Him and ask Him to take care of the situation, and then step back and rest, knowing that He will work it out to my own best interest and for the best of the situation. Then I wait while He does. That is my job as a woman, to let God lead me, guide me, and direct me. To be submissive to Him as my Father.
Men take a more proactive approach to the circumstance as they are the head, the leader, but there still should be an offering to Him of the situation and a desire to do whatever it is that He wills to happen, fully giving the situation to Him.
2. Galatians 6:9
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
I am a single mom. I run the whole show.
That means caring for the kids all by myself, as I have no family to help whatsoever.
It means taking care of the house, cleaning it, fixing things when they break, hiring lawnmowers to mow the lawn, taking care of pest control, housing seasonal changes, changing the air filters, and so on.
It means daily lining myself up to the Proverbs 31 woman.
It means learning how to be a better wife daily, so that I am fully prepared for when God brings me my future husband.
But I don’t stop there. I also have a ministry, this blog, and I’ve ran other ministries in the past (such as my free group and serving in my local church). I also teach others (friends) how to be more godly in my private life as well, behind the curtain I train them.
There’s no way I could handle all that without the grace of God, learning to balance rest/work, but I also need to be extremely good at time management.
In having good time management, you learn to fix your eyes on something in the future that is very stable, something you want, so that every decision you make becomes about that thing you want and decisions flow easier because they all line up to that focus. The non-essentials, the things that won’t get you to your goal lie at the waist-side and you let them go because it doesn’t line up to your purpose.
Here’s that focus: to reap the reward.
I’ve learned about being a godly wife because I want the reward of having a good marriage. I’ve learned to balance work and rest because I want to continue to serve and not get burned out and quit. I’ve learned to fix the house because I want the reward of not relying on someone else who’s going to try to take advantage of me as a single woman and overcharge me. I’ve learned to create and serve on the blog and to become the Proverbs 31 woman because I desperately want to be used by God for His purposes and to please Him in my daily living.
Whatever reward you’re wanting, the verse is clear, you can’t give up and that means balancing everything. You have to take time off from ministry. Even Pastors do this. They travel, they take time off from the pulpit every now and then and we understand, they need rest. All ministry leaders need rest. All humans need rest or God wouldn’t have created sleep. And He gives us patterns to know how to rest.
Six days we work, the seventh, we take off as He did in creating the world (Genesis 2:2-3).
In a 24 hour period of time, we rest (sleep) 8 hours, work 8 hours, and do whatever we want/is necessary for the other 8 hours. This tells us that we need AT LEAST 1/3 of our time resting.
But while resting, we still need to keep our focus on the reward, not getting lazy or seeking rest TOO much. It’s a balance.
What is it that you’d like as YOUR reward? What harvest are you seeking? How is your life planned and mapped out in order to receive that reward and so that you can reach it without giving up or quitting?
3. Isaiah 40:31
“…but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
When I first heard this verse as a Christian, I have to admit, I did not understand it. How can we run and not grow weary? It seemed so counterintuitive.
Many people will tell you that when you are running on the strength of God, He will renew your strength and you won’t grow weary or faint, and that is very true.
His mercies are new every day (Lamentations 3:22-23). He gives us enough strength to get through the day, but it’s more than that. Not only is He giving us the strength to endure and holding us up, but the actual work that He gives us to DO is light.
When God first called me to become like Moses, training and teaching a large nation about Him, I errantly thought I’d be working non-stop. “I’ll never get to rest,” I thought to myself, “There goes my social life”. It’s grueling hard work. There’s SO many people to tend to, to shepherd, to take care of. I’m just one person, a single mom at that. I have so many responsibilities to take care of already. How can I do all this, how can I POSSIBLY handle all of it?
Here’s the thing…it’s NOT too hard.
Every day, I get up, I pray and read my Bible and eat breakfast, put on makeup, and start my day. Then I spend a few hours working on the blog as that’s the priority. After that I teach and train my friends and shepherd them.
Much of my day is spent on those endeavors, training them up so THEY can lead as well as teaching you the things of God on this blog. I’m able to get all my housework done and everything I want to do done (things like fun, the things I personally enjoy).
It’s pleasant work, it’s peaceful work. The work that God gives us to do is steady, streamlined, peaceful, pleasant, it makes us happy.
It’s not chaotic, crazy, wild, grueling work. It’s light (Matthew 11:29-30).
He’s not a tyrant, whipping us like slave-driver, and making us do grueling work. His work is light, He loves us, cares for us, and gives us HIS strength to then endure that light work.
If your work is too hard, you’ve not yet got into the flow of what His purpose and will is for your life. He will lead you and guide you to get you there and when you do, you’ll see that it is easy and light. ❤️
4. Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
The key here in verse 28 is to come to Him.
We, as humans, oftentimes make life so much more complicated and complex than it really is.
If you’re weary and tired, you’re not spending enough time with the Father (Luke 10:38-42).
Are you setting aside, making time for just you and Him, drinking Living Water, resting and finding refreshing rest in His company? Or are you allowing the weight of the world and the hurriedness of life to choke out your time with Him daily?
If you’re tired, the answer is here in this verse…go to the Father. Let Him care for you and wash away all the burdens that you carry.
5. Revelation 2:3
“You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.”
Life is full of suffering and distress, that is for sure, but so much of that we bring upon ourselves. Due to our sin nature, our fleeting lusts of the flesh, or desires that do not line up to Scripture, our lack of patience, our pride, the list goes on and on.
This Bible verse however, speaks to the nature of Christ and suffering for HIS name sake. Suffering for Christ when you’re innocent. I know this pain personally and I know that there’s only one way to get through it: through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Without Him, we cannot endure such things, nor can we even speak of them, for they are too great for our understanding.
As a ministry leader, you’ve no doubtedly had the same experience. Being attacked for your faith, being misaligned when you’re innocent, or being falsely accused when you’ve taken the righteous path.
We must leave all things to God to take care of for us, not fighting for our own rights, but waiting for God to save us in His own precious timing.
That timing is not our timing.
We tend to want suffering to end, but it’s in the midst of that great pain and suffering for His name sake that we not only gain Heaven rewards, please our Heavenly Father, and glean new ideas and information about who God is and what He is all about, but it’s a wonderful way to glorify our precious Savior, the one in whom we were created for.
When you’re dealing with such trials and adversity, the tendency is to want the suffering to be over as quickly as possible. It’s our human nature. But without suffering, we do not know endurance. For how can a person endure something that does not exist?
Rather, we have to give in to that suffering, tell God that we understand He’s there (Deuteronomy 31:8, Psalm 34:18), He loves us (Isaiah 54:10), there’s a good reason for this (Romans 8:28) and allow Him to test us, mold us, and most importantly, sanctify us.
Thankfully, we have Bible characters to teach us this. Think of Joseph. How he was completely innocent, sold into slavery, and thrown in jail. And yet God used all that to save his family, the very ones who PUT him through all that, in essence.
Or David. How he fled from the hand of Saul for his very life because Saul was simply jealous of David.
Or Job. How he lost just about everything but the Lord graciously gave him much more than he lost.
All men who were innocent who dealt with extreme suffering through no fault of their own.
Through those stories, we get a glimpse into the mind and heart of God Himself as He works through our every detail in our lives. Truly, no suffering is for no reason. God has a plan, a wonderful, beautiful plan and sometimes, we can’t see that plan until we are through the suffering.
If you’re suffering today, hold on. You might not be saved from it today, you might not be saved from it tomorrow, but as God attests to in the Bible, you WILL be saved from it. He will not allow it to go on forever (Psalm 37:24). He will save you. He will hold you in His bosom and carry you through it every single day that the trial persists. He is a good God, one to be worshipped and praised at all times, even in the midst of great suffering.
6. Proverbs 31:25
“She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.”
I would encourage you to read through Proverbs 31, but I specifically love this one especially for when I am feeling overwhelmed!
How awesome would it be to laugh and have joy towards the future? Do we know what will happen? No, but we know the ONE who does, right? Such comfort!
7. Psalm 139:13-14
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
Remind yourself that God created you – He fearfully and wonderfully made you, every single detail about you. Let that uplift you!
8. Psalm 119:11
“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”
It can be easy to respond to our kids out of anger, especially when we feel like we are barely making it through.
When we are doing things like this (mediating and reading His Word every day) we hide those words in our hearts and we end up responding differently, rather than choosing to respond out of anger, which is sin.
9. Psalm 55:22
“Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.”
Another verse about casting our cares on Him, and this one says He will sustain us! He won’t let us be shaken even when it makes total worldly sense for us to be.
10. Matthew 5:10-12
“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”
When you are feeling overwhelmed by the words of the world – you aren’t a good enough mom, you didn’t do this right, etc… God actually calls the persecuted BLESSED.
When you are doing the things you know you need to be doing according to God’s word, and people are saying those accusations against you, you can be comforted that God calls you blessed!
11. Ephesians 2:8
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—”
This is such a freeing verse – salvation is a GIFT. All you have to do is believe and turn away from sin, and God offers grace freely.
This doesn’t mean we go to whatever we want to do – it simply means that WHEN you mess up (because we will!) God’s grace is enough. You didn’t earn your salvation, it was given to you, and that is such a weight lifted off.
12. Luke 18:1
“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”
Be encouraged by this – when you feel exhausted and are barely holding on, remember to pray pray pray and never give up!
13. 1 Corinthians 10:13
“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”
It’s so funny that I am typing this out because this is actually my memory verse this week, so I think God is really wanting to encourage us in this!
Sometimes it can be SO easy to give in to our flesh – whether it’s acting out of anger, zoning out on a TV show, giving in to doing something that’s bad for us – but we can be encouraged that none of this is new to God, nor is He surprised by our sin.
Everyone struggles and we aren’t alone! He is faithful and will always offer us a way out.
14. 1 John 4:19
“We love because he first loved us.”
This is such a short, yet SO impactful verse! When we are feeling exhausted and that there isn’t enough of us to go around, we have to remember that we can only love others because GOD first loved us.
We have to accept His love for us and remember that it’s an overflow of His love out of us, and into our family, friends, and at large…the world.
15. Galatians 5:22-23
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
When in doubt, or just feeling flat out overwhelmed… read this verse! God gives us the ability to be these things when we ask, and He will help.
16. 1 Corinthians 16:14
“Do everything in love.”
This is similar to the one we just read on day 14, but because we know WHY we love, we now know that our response to all situations should be love. We do things because we love – it’s selfless, and not expecting anything in return.
This can be super hard though, especially when you feel like you have done all this work – taking care of the kids, done the laundry, packing the lunches, etc…what about ME, right? You are working hard mama, I see you and God sees you, but we do these things because we LOVE. <3
17. Psalm 127:3
“Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him.”
This is such a great reminder for us! Sometimes we can get into a habit of seeing our kids as “burdens.” We may never actually SAY it out loud, but our actions show otherwise. We huff and puff when the kids need something else after we have already gotten up and got them something 28 times.
We crave a break from them and want to get away. Now, there’s nothing wrong with taking time for yourself every once in a while, in fact, it is needed for us to refresh and take care of our mental, physical, and spiritual help.
BUT our children are blessings and have been entrusted in our care, they aren’t burdens!
18. Ephesians 4:32
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
When we remember how much we have been forgiven, it becomes easier to forgive others – we don’t have to maintain the weariness and exhaustion that comes from holding on to unforgiveness. In fact, we will feel freer and more energized when we work those things out!
19. Proverbs 22:6
“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”
You are not doing this motherhood thing in vain! I want to make sure that you understand just how important your job is. I have questioned many times as a parent, “Am I even doing this right??”
This is God’s encouragement to us, that when we are instilling these godly values into our kids, we are training them up so they will love the Lord and walk with Him.
20. 3 John 1:4
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”
It may seem easier to just sleep in or do something else other than reading God’s Word, but we can take heart that it brings God JOY to see us walking in His truth! And ultimately gives us the rest we truly need.
21. Jeremiah 31:25
“I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.”
This one is short and simple, and so encouraging! God will refresh us when we ask Him, and satisfy us when we are feeling weighed down by the world. Have you asked Him today?
22. 2 Thessalonians 3:13
“And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.”
Another encouraging verse to help us to “keep fighting the good fight” – we don’t battle against flesh and blood, but with spiritual warfare. We may not always see it, but we can’t grow weary in doing good even if we don’t understand why at the moment!
23. Matthew 4:4
“Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Just like we need food and water to survive, we need the ultimate bread of life to survive – God’s Word! When we feel exhausted, this is the first place we should seek to satisfy that spiritual need.
24. Hebrews 4:12
“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
When we feel that exhaustion creeping in, we can again, turn to God’s Word! It is living and active, and helps us fight any negative thoughts or temptations that come our way especially when we are more vulnerable to attacks.
25. John 20:31
“But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
When we believe in Him, we have life through His name! It’s such an encouraging thought and gives us the motivation to go on!
26. Isaiah 41:10
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
This verse is so comforting for us because God promises that He is with us! He is always faithful and will help us and uphold us even in our weaknesses.
27. 1 Corinthians 15:58
“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
Even just reading this right now, I am close to tears. Our labor is not in vain, sister in Christ! The work we are doing here on this Earth MATTERS and has an eternal purpose. Don’t lose heart!
28. Philippians 4:1
“Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!”
Continue to stand firm in the Lord even when things seem hard or impossible – remember, HE will uphold the righteous and you won’t be shaken!
29. Psalm 103:1-2
“Of David. Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.”
The ultimate reminder of what we need to do when we feel overwhelmed and so weary…praise His name! Come to Him with thanksgiving and praise, and then pour your heart out to Him.
It’s so important to praise God for who He is, and a lot of the time when we do that, it makes our troubles seem not as big.
30. Philippians 4:13
“I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
When we are relying on HIS strength and operating out of that, we can do the impossible! So encouraging!
I hope these Bible verses encourage you, mama! Let God’s Word flow through you and fill you up, so your cup can overflow into those around you – your kids, your spouse, family, friends, etc. You’ve got this! 😊
