ganggalah.com – At one time, I served in seven ministries and attended five church meetings in one weekend. I’m not trying to show you how holy I am. Instead, I’m telling you how ridiculous I am. I was very busy, moving from one meeting to another, trying to complete the pile of tasks I had. On the outside, I looked like a very holy person, but inside—and in God’s eyes—I was actually the furthest thing from holiness.

I’m afraid of the weekend because I know that’s where I’ll have to face the “attack” of meetings, exercises, and assignments. I dragged my tired body to the meetings, and looked forward to when they were over. In those meetings, I prayed, but I didn’t understand or believe what I said to God. I also became an impatient person, and lost love in my actions and words. When I look at other people, what I see is not how they try to give their best for God, I instead see their mistakes. My life feels sad and I live in sin slot 10 ribu .

Slowly but surely, I realized that I was drifting further away from God. I just skimmed through the Bible verses listed in my devotional time, without trying to understand what those verses meant to me. I felt ashamed to approach God in my sinful condition. To cover up my guilt, I argued that I no longer needed to spend quiet time with God, because I had spent hours of my time in ministry. Eventually, I stopped having quiet time altogether.

Know your limits

For most of my time living as a Christian, I have experienced joy in service. God always gives me the grace to see that whatever talents I have are His. For me, Sunday is the best day of the week. I feel so happy to be at church every Sunday. I enjoy my service for God, and I feel His presence with me as I serve His people.

However, that all changed when I took on more services. I wish I had the wisdom to know when and how to say no. When people come up to me and ask me to join their ministry efforts, I nod my head to show that I am a “good” Christian. In fact, I know that my schedule is full. This is what then steals my joy and makes it even more difficult for me to enjoy my service.

Know that God gives us time to rest

I once thought that if I busied myself with service, then God would be more pleased with me. So, with that assumption, I never refuse every offer of service given to me.

But, when I took time to rest from ministry and spend more time with God, I learned that resting is a very Biblical thing. In fact, God Himself rested on the Sabbath after creating the universe (Genesis 2:2). In doing so, God gave us the perfect example to follow.

We rest—physically and spiritually—after a long day of work. I am reminded by Psalm 127:1-2 that it is “useless” to work “with great effort” from early morning until late at night, because God gives the children He loves when they rest. These verses do not lead us to stop working, but remind us to have an attitude of dependence and surrender to God when we work.