Remember Your Vision

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Want to avoid burnout and discouragement? Recalling your vision can help!

I say this from personal experience.

God called me to start a Christian Counseling Center for the greater Toledo Ohio area back in early 2000.

Many years I struggled to stay afloat. Difficulties abounded. More than one person suggested it might be best to close down.

Certainly, I could have earned a good living employed elsewhere, whereas some years I actually incurred a loss on the counseling center.

What prevented me from burning out or taking an easier road?

In retrospect, a three-step process made a big difference for me. I would like to share it with you. I call it remember, revisit, renew.

Remember

Each time I pondered the advice to quit, I also remembered my calling. Repeatedly, I reached the same conclusion: God placed me here. He hasn’t told me to leave. Therefore, I will stay at my assigned post.

Paul encouraged remembering:

Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the laying on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:6-7)

Revisit

However, to stay on track, do more than merely recall. Revisit your remembrances of God’s direction and original vision to find renewed inspiration and clarity. Then, update your current goals and realign your activities.

Renew

So, remember and revisit your original calling and vision but also renew you commitment and fortify yourself to fulfill it.

God gave me the vision, yet I recognized a need to fortify and strengthen myself for the job. I continually engaged in training to continue developing my leadership, business and counseling skills.

The counseling center, though not without challenges, now reaches hundreds of hurting people every year. We have grown to the point that I am moving more into a supervisory oversight role with other therapists and doing less counseling myself. This is the role I envisioned long ago, though I admit it took much longer to get here than I had ever imagined.  

So, I have a heart-felt challenge for you. Take time this week to remember, revisit and renew the vision God has given you. Bring to mind your call into ministry, times the Lord has clearly spoken to you, or special words others have spoken over your ministry. Such memories will refresh your spirit!

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