Faithful Action Produces Miracles, Self-reliance Produces Burnout
Photo Credit: Chinmay Singh
If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, there should constantly be miracles happening in your life. If your life is dry and there are no miracles, something is wrong. If you’re surprised at a miracle happening in your life, then you’re in sin! That’s called being self-reliant.
“One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So, the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.”
You shouldn’t be surprised at miracles happening I your life, in fact there should always be miracles happening in your life. Peter wasn’t surprised at the miracle because he knew it was Jesus at work, not him. That’s called putting faith in your own works rather than putting your faith in God. Miracles don’t happen because of what you’ve done, miracles happen because of Jesus. If you do nothing, God won’t perform miracles, but if you work like crazy but put all your faith in your own works and don’t rely on God, then God won’t perform miracles because of your lack of faith in Him (Hebrews 11:6, James 2:14-25).
Peter and John were just living their day to day lives, they were going to the temple to pray and they saw a man in need of help. They didn’t deep it, they just helped him the only way they knew how, with the power of God. Jesus gave them an incredible task to evangelise the whole world (Matthew 28:18-20) but nowhere in the scriptures do we see them stressing out and worrying about how they were going to do it – because they put their hope in God. Faithful action is giving your best and letting God do the rest.
I think what God is trying to teach me right now is to chill out, make a plan of action and then do it. I have spent so long stressing and worrying about university, about my personal life and about ministry. The truth is that God isn’t going to give me a challenge that is too difficult for me to do; if God gives me a task, it means that I can 100% do it (1 Corinthians 10:13, Philippians 4:13). I let worry and anxiety take over and I hide from my responsibilities instead of facing them head on. I worry about the things I need to do and don’t take my worries to God properly, this leads to me being self-reliant which therefore leads to burn out and a lack of miracles.
I’ve been looking for a new job for a year, but I’ve been relying on myself instead of God and I’m still working the same job and haven’t found a new one. I’ve stressed out so much about getting good grades at uni and I’ve relied on myself and not God. Fortunately, God has been good to me and given me good grades, but they’re not the grades I’ve been aiming for. I have submitted coursework unfinished because I’ve run out of time to do it, so who knows how this could affect my overall grade. I spent a year being terrified of evangelising on campus out of fear of how people would see me, and that was because I wasn’t walking faithfully with the Lord! I was relying on myself and my own works instead of on God which resulted in cowardice (Proverbs 28:1). For a whole year, my life was dry with no miracles and I was constantly getting burnt out.
But now, I’ve repented and things are starting to change. I just had to come to God with humility and a soft heart and tell Him that I was struggling and needed help. It was small, baby seps that helped me change. Things like waking up early consistently to call upon the Lord for strength. The only way you can rely on God is if you call upon His name each and every day to strengthen you: seek God with all your heart.
I started to write down everything that I needed to do and make a plan of how I was going to do them – this brought the stress levels down a lot. I stopped holding myself to ridiculously high standards. I’m not perfect, I’m going to make mistakes and I won’t do everything right every time. I have a goal of how many people I am going to share my faith with every day. I do my best to hit my goal every single day. But sometimes my days are busy and I physically don’t have enough time to hit my goals. So, I make sure to share with at least one person. Sharing my faith with one person is better than sharing with none at all. That momentum of sharing with one leads to the momentum to share with another.
I stopped putting my faith in my own works and God has blessed it! It’s not so much about what you do, it’s about the faith you have and what you choose to do with. God has blessed me sharing with as many people as I can even if I haven’t been able to hit my goal. I’ve made so many friends at uni, in the span of 3 weeks, who love God. My friends and I have started a Bible discussion on campus and people have come out to it every week. God has filled up my personal life with Bible studies and my friend is getting baptised this Sunday. This is all because I started relying on God and not relying on myself.
What I’ve learnt is that if I’m stressed, anxious and overwhelmed, it’s because I’m relying on myself and not relying on God. My typical sinful nature is to believe I’m not good enough and then give up. I wouldn’t be where I am now if it wasn’t for God. I wouldn’t be at university doing a master’s degree. I wouldn’t be helping other women give their lives to Christ. I wouldn’t be writing this article right now! God has moved in my life in incredible and unspeakable ways and He can do so much more as long as I have faith and put all of my faith in Him. I started praying through my daily needs and it’s been a game changer.
