Latest / Coffee and Bible Time Podcast / How to Combat Faith Burnout | Taylor Krause

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How to Combat Faith Burnout | Taylor Krause · Coffee and Bible Time Podcast

• 1:01
  Ellen Krause: At the Coffee and Bible Time podcast, o ur goal is to help you delight in God's Word and thrive in Christian living.
• 1:07
  Ellen Krause: Each week, we talk to subject matter experts who broaden your biblical understanding, encourage you in hard times and provide life-building tips to enhance your Christian walk.
• 1:18
  Ellen Krause: We are so glad you have joined us.
• 1:21
  Ellen Krause: Welcome back to the Coffee and Bible Time podcast.
• 1:26
  Ellen Krause: This is Ellen, your host.
• 1:29
  Ellen Krause: Today we are answering an email question about faith burnout.
• 1:33
  Ellen Krause: Since we can all relate to this topic, we decided to discuss it on our podcast today and see what the Bible has to say about it as well.
• 1:42
  Ellen Krause: As you can imagine, we get many emails here at Coffee and Bible Time and we usually divide them between Ashley Taylor and myself, and this particular email was channeled to Taylor, so she is joining me on the podcast to share the advice that she offered to this question.
• 2:01
  Ellen Krause: Our listener asked I need more of God in my life.
• 2:06
  Ellen Krause: I feel like nothing is going the way I would have liked, even my relationship with him.
• 2:12
  Ellen Krause: What should I do?
• 2:13
  Ellen Krause: Please help, I'm tired of trying.
• 2:18
  Ellen Krause: Can you relate to that a little bit?
• 2:20
  Ellen Krause: What kind of burnout have you experienced?
• 2:23
  Ellen Krause: Maybe it's been at school or work, or overdoing some kind of activity.
• 2:30
  Ellen Krause: Well, what about faith burnout?
• 2:32
  Ellen Krause: Have you felt the fatigue of showing up day after day ready to have a spiritual high but only to be left with emptiness?
• 2:40
  Ellen Krause: Well, T aylor from Coffee and Bible Time is going to share her story, tips, and advice that she wishes she had been given during her season of burnout.
• 2:51
  Ellen Krause: Please welcome Taylor.
• 2:54
  Taylor Krause: Hi everyone.
• 2:55
  Taylor Krause: It's so good to be back.
• 2:57
  Taylor Krause: I have really missed being able to do these podcasts with Mentor Mama and just kind of have some more real conversations about things that we're going through.
• 3:09
  Taylor Krause: Love mother-daughter the combo that we have going on here.
• 3:15
  Taylor Krause: I think it is really fun and amazing, so I'm very excited.
• 3:21
  Ellen Krause: Ashley wanted to be here too, but she had a conflict, so here we are Taylor.
• 3:26
  Ellen Krause: Why don't you start out by sharing with us your own personal experience with faith burnout?
• 3:33
  Taylor Krause: Yeah, absolutely.
• 3:34
  Taylor Krause: I want to start off by saying that this isn't a one-time thing, right?
• 3:41
  Taylor Krause: I think we can all experience faith burnout in waves.
• 3:46
  Taylor Krause: You know, it comes, it goes, and for me, the experience that I really wanted to touch on here was my experience of faith burnout in high school.
• 3:59
  Taylor Krause: So I want to say that in high school I had a very close relationship with God.
• 4:05
  Taylor Krause: I truly felt not a lot of lows in my relationship with God in my, let's say, freshman sophomore year.
• 4:14
  Taylor Krause: But as time went on, firstly I had challenged myself.
• 4:19
  Taylor Krause: I wanted to read through the Bible.
• 4:20
  Taylor Krause: It was all new, it was exciting, I was gung-ho, if you will.
• 4:23
  Taylor Krause: But once I was kind of done with that I had finished reading through the Bible, I kind of hit this wall where I'm like, okay, well, I've read through the Bible, I guess I'll just kind of start going through and trying to read it again.
• 4:37
  Taylor Krause: I think at the time I was going through a little bit of depression because I had graduated high school a year early and I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do with my life, and so I was kind of living at home, working part-time job at the library.
• 4:54
  Taylor Krause: I had no inspiration.
• 4:56
  Taylor Krause: Reading my Bible.
• 4:58
  Taylor Krause: I mean I was showing up, I was trying to show up day after day and I remember thinking to myself man, I am really looking for you, G od, to be here with me when I'm doing my quiet time.
• 5:11
  Taylor Krause: I'm wanting you to show me your face, I want to feel your S pirit moving when I'm reading this text.
• 5:18
  Taylor Krause: But as I'm reading this, I mean I'm scatterbrained, I can't focus, I want to do everything else but it I'm drawn to my cell phone.
• 5:26
  Taylor Krause: I, you know all of the things and I just felt very discouraged day after day, feeling like, you know, I'm trying to show up A lot of days.
• 5:36
  Taylor Krause: If I'm being honest, I failed, you know, and not where I'm putting, you know, bringing myself down, but I'm saying I failed in the sense where I'm sitting down to read my Bible, I end up opening my phone, I end up getting distracted.
• 5:48
  Taylor Krause: I maybe glanced at a verse or two, but nothing was soaking in, nothing was penetrating my heart.
• 5:53
  Taylor Krause: And, yeah, this lasted a very, very long time.
• 5:58
  Taylor Krause: I want to say like I feel like I was counting, like it was over a year where I was like going into it and it was like I don't remember the last time I've had a spiritual experience with God.
• 6:07
  Taylor Krause: So I went to college and you know there's a whole new host of challenges there.
• 6:13
  Taylor Krause: But I felt, like me, I was at a Christian college.
• 6:17
  Taylor Krause: There was room to grow, experience God in different ways, with other people pouring into me, which I felt was really helpful, because when you are experiencing burnout it can be hard to produce a lot of energy to do it all yourself.
• 6:32
  Taylor Krause: It's nice to have somebody else pouring into you.
• 6:35
  Taylor Krause: But my first bout of spiritual fatigue came the end of my high school career and I think there was definitely some depression sprinkled in there, either separate from this or, you know, honestly, sometimes I think, when you are searching and searching and searching for God to speak to you in your life and you feel like you're not met with something, I feel like there's an element of spiritual sadness that can come over you of like, oh, like I just wish that you would meet me here tangibly, in a way that I can really feel it, because we know that God does meet us there.
• 7:16
  Taylor Krause: But sometimes we long for that feeling more than just the knowledge that he's there.
• 7:19
  Taylor Krause: But sometimes we long for that feeling more than just the knowledge that he's there.
• 7:23
  Ellen Krause: Yes, we sure do.
• 7:24
  Ellen Krause: I just can resonate with our emailer, who she just doesn't.
• 7:31
  Ellen Krause: She just sound really frustrated and feel like nothing's going your way.
• 7:36
  Ellen Krause: That's exactly how you're describing.
• 7:38
  Ellen Krause: You experienced it as well, and I know, for me too, there's been times where I feel like it's been more of like a treadmill or it's been out of duty instead of, like you said, a more positive spiritual experience experience.
• 8:05
  Taylor Krause: Let's just say I haven't had any you know, M oses, burning bush moments in my life, but you do kind of hope that we're all looking for that?
• 8:11
  Ellen Krause: Yeah, yeah, okay, well, tell us about how you got through that particular time and some of the tips that you offered to this person who emailed.
• 8:25
  Taylor Krause: Absolutely and take everything I say with a grain of salt.
• 8:29
  Taylor Krause: I'm just sharing from my experience with what I did with feeling spiritually burned out.
• 8:37
  Taylor Krause: The first thing that I wanted to address and this is probably my first piece of advice that I'd have for anybody going through spiritual burnout, struggling with fatigue, like you're going to the W ord every day and you're not feeling the spiritual experience that you want is, firstly, don't put that pressure on yourself to have an intense spiritual experience.
• 8:58
  Taylor Krause: When you are reading your Bible, the enemy is going to tell you if God was really here, you would feel his presence right now.
• 9:06
  Taylor Krause: It would feel so real to you.
• 9:08
  Taylor Krause: And you've been coming to your Bible day after day and you haven't been feeling God's presence.
• 9:13
  Taylor Krause: The Holy Spirit hasn't been working.
• 9:14
  Taylor Krause: Maybe you should think about that.
• 9:17
  Taylor Krause: Maybe you should wonder if he's really there.
• 9:19
  Taylor Krause: Maybe you should question whether or not the Bible is actually good enough to speak into your life.
• 9:25
  Taylor Krause: Like the enemy will come in with these things, all because we have this pressure of having a spiritual experience, especially for those of us that grew up going to summer camps and we we leave with these spiritual highs and there's this expectation of when I go to read my Bible all by myself.
• 9:41
  Taylor Krause: This is what I'm going to get.
• 9:43
  Taylor Krause: And the reality is we don't live every day on extreme highs or extreme lows.
• 9:50
  Taylor Krause: Like that would be too much.
• 9:52
  Taylor Krause: I don't think our brains can even handle that.
• 9:55
  Taylor Krause: We can't comprehend.
• 9:56
  Taylor Krause: We can't be in the presence of God, the fullness of God's intense glory.
• 10:01
  Taylor Krause: So we shouldn't expect every single day to come to our Bible and have this intense spiritual high experience.
• 10:10
  Taylor Krause: Like we are finite human beings, we have God's word to speak into our lives, no matter what we're feeling.
• 10:19
  Taylor Krause: We're going to have emotions, we're going to be sad, we're going to be feeling we're gonna have emotions, we're gonna be sad, we're gonna be happy, we're gonna be anxious.
• 10:26
  Taylor Krause: Like this is who we are.
• 10:27
  Taylor Krause: We're broken human beings living in a fallen world.
• 10:31
  Taylor Krause: Like the Bible is our guide.
• 10:33
  Taylor Krause: But we can't put the pressure on our quiet time to be perfect.
• 10:39
  Taylor Krause: Because if you do put the pressure on your quiet time to be perfect, you're going to feel burnt out.
• 10:46
  Taylor Krause: You're going to feel like you're doing something wrong when you're just going to read your Bible.
• 10:50
  Taylor Krause: Hey, there's something honorable about going to read your word when you don't feel anything, because God wants to invite us into his presence, whether we're depressed, whether we're anxious, whether we're confused, whether we understand it, whether we don't.
• 11:07
  Taylor Krause: He wants us there.
• 11:09
  Taylor Krause: He invites us in all of our brokenness.
• 11:11
  Taylor Krause: So why do we put this pressure on ourselves to have this intensely amazing experience every time we read our Bible?
• 11:18
  Taylor Krause: We shouldn't, we shouldn't.
• 11:22
  Taylor Krause: And in fact we see people in the Bible like David thanks Psalm 22, where he's crying out my God, why have you forsaken me?
• 11:29
  Taylor Krause: Like he's feeling low.
• 11:31
  Taylor Krause: He's feeling like where are you, G od?
• 11:34
  Taylor Krause: I don't understand.
• 11:35
  Taylor Krause: He's confused.
• 11:36
  Taylor Krause: He's bringing his confusion to God.
• 11:38
  Taylor Krause: He's not running away from God.
• 11:40
  Taylor Krause: He's still showing up, even though he doesn't feel like he's there.
• 11:43
  Taylor Krause: But the reality is is we're going to have a lot of hard feelings when we're coming to the Bible.
• 11:49
  Taylor Krause: And if you're going through a season of depression, you're probably going to go to the Bible and feel numb, because sometimes there's a chemical imbalance in our brain.
• 12:00
  Taylor Krause: We're not going to feel these highs and we're not going to feel these lows and we're just going to have to go through a season of having to rely on understanding that the Bible is God's truth, not necessarily the place where we're going to generate extreme highs for our life.
• 12:17
  Taylor Krause: God is constant.
• 12:19
  Taylor Krause: He is there even if we don't feel it.
• 12:22
  Taylor Krause: And I think, too, another thing that you might find encouragement is knowing that we are sojourners on this earth, right, like we're not really supposed to feel too comfortable.
• 12:36
  Taylor Krause: We're not supposed to feel like you know what?
• 12:38
  Taylor Krause: I could just live my life right here on earth every single day, no problems.
• 12:43
  Taylor Krause: You know, I'm fearing death because I don't want to leave this place.
• 12:48
  Taylor Krause: I love it so much.
• 12:49
  Taylor Krause: Like the reality is we we're sojourners that's a fancy way of saying we're wandering on this earth because it's our temporary home.
• 12:55
  Taylor Krause: Like we're not meant to be here, we're not meant to be fully satisfied with living life here.
• 13:01
  Taylor Krause: So if you feel like there's this longing, like our emailers, like this frustration of I just want to be with God, I just want to be with you, like nothing on this earth is satisfying.
• 13:12
  Taylor Krause: I want to be with your presence, like that's a good thing, that's a wonderful desire, and so having the knowledge of I'm a sojourner on this earth, I can come to God's word to provide me truth.
• 13:25
  Taylor Krause: But at the end of the day, whether or not I have a spiritual high experience or I don't, I'm loved by God.
• 13:31
  Taylor Krause: I'm chosen by God.
• 13:32
  Taylor Krause: I am saved.
• 13:33
  Taylor Krause: I am forever with him.
• 13:34
  Taylor Krause: I can take a deep breath knowing I am saved and breathe out knowing I will be with him forever.
• 13:42
  Taylor Krause: That's what matters, not the spiritual high experiences.
• 13:46
  Taylor Krause: That's my first tip.
• 13:47
  Taylor Krause: Do you have anything to add to that?
• 13:49
  Ellen Krause: Yes.
• 13:50
  Ellen Krause: that, G od's word is active and alive.
• 13:52
  Ellen Krause: When we do read the Bible, we are interacting with God's word.
• 14:01
  Ellen Krause: That's live, active, sharper than a two-edged sword.
• 14:04
  Ellen Krause: It reminds me of that song.
• 14:07
  Ellen Krause: I think you hit the nail on the head when you said even when I don't feel it, you're working.
• 14:13
  Ellen Krause: I don't remember what the name of that song is.
• 14:18
  Taylor Krause: It really stuck that song stuck with me.
• 14:21
  Ellen Krause: I think we had it at our church and it was Waymaker.
• 14:24
  Ellen Krause: Yes, yes, because we, you know, we're just bombarded daily with so many images, emotions, seeing people in all this range of social media, just huge expectations and television shows, drama and all these things that we maybe blow it out of proportion on what our expectation is of how we are going to encounter God.
• 15:00
  Ellen Krause: I completely agree, I think for me it's been more in reading God's word, resonating with his truth, and when that pours over me, it gives me peace, mm-hmm.
• 15:19
  Taylor Krause: I love what you said there.
• 15:21
  Taylor Krause: I think you're completely right.
• 15:23
  Taylor Krause: We and I can't speak for everybody, but maybe for a lot of people listening we are bombarded by everything in social media and I know it sounds cheesy nowadays, but the reality is is that is a dopamine high, Like our phones provide us with highs?
• 15:40
  Taylor Krause: Like from the minute we go on it, like we get sucked into it, Our brain is pumping that out.
• 15:46
  Taylor Krause: It's.
• 15:46
  Taylor Krause: It's such fast, instant gratification.
• 15:50
  Taylor Krause: When we go to read our Bibles or we start doing really slow-paced, regular, average things that doesn't involve our phones, our brain is like where's this dopamine high?
• 16:02
  Taylor Krause: I could go to my phone and get that in two seconds and I'm not really feeling satisfied opening up my Bible and feeling bored after five seconds because it's just hard.
• 16:12
  Taylor Krause: Now, I mean, I feel like that's such an excuse to say that it's hard, but the reality is we have to be disciplined, to be focused in reading our Bible, because otherwise we're just too used to instant gratification and it can really mess us up when it comes to reading our Bible, and I experienced that every single day.
• 16:35
  Taylor Krause: So I don't say this like giving other people advice.
• 16:38
  Taylor Krause: I need to give that to myself because, let me tell you I'm scared to look on my phone and see how much time I spend on an average on that thing.
• 16:48
  Taylor Krause: But, I know I get technology headaches.
• 16:51
  Taylor Krause: Which is that not a sign Like okay, girl know I get ?
• 16:59
  Ellen Krause: You know, there's kind of a similar analogy.
• 17:01
  Ellen Krause: I remember someone said to me once think about how much time you spend getting ready in the morning you know whether that's taking your shower, if you put on makeup or you do your hair or whatever that might be those minutes compared to how many minutes you're investing in knowing God through his word.
• 17:21
  Ellen Krause: The same could be true for like how much time do you spend on social media versus how much time are you actually?
• 17:36
  Taylor Krause: mean, that's scary.
• 17:37
  Taylor Krause: I should know that I should make a change.
• 17:39
  Taylor Krause: But you are absolutely right.
• 17:43
  Taylor Krause: Like if we all just take a moment to be like, okay, how much time have I spent in God's word today versus how much time did I spend on my phone?
• 17:52
  Taylor Krause: That's a scary ratio for all of us, probably.
• 17:57
  Taylor Krause: But I'll go on to my second point here that I wanted to share, and this is for those of you that you're really wanting to meet God okay, but you're wanting to do it in a way that feels manageable.
• 18:11
  Taylor Krause: I'm going to say this my second tip is to pray daily on your knees at night, and the reason why I say this it might sound overwhelming to some of you like this isn't possible, like this is hard, maybe just because prayer sounds scary.
• 18:27
  Taylor Krause: But the reality is for those of you that are feeling burnt out, for those of you that like it's a struggle to just open up your word.
• 18:35
  Taylor Krause: You got that mental block.
• 18:37
  Taylor Krause: You know what I'm saying.
• 18:37
  Taylor Krause: It's blocking you from going into God's word and your mind's maybe saying you know what.
• 18:43
  Taylor Krause: You should just give up.
• 18:45
  Taylor Krause: You haven't been in God's word.
• 18:47
  Taylor Krause: Just don't even try, nothing's worth it.
• 18:49
  Taylor Krause: You're too far gone.
• 18:50
  Taylor Krause: Don't listen to that.
• 18:52
  Taylor Krause: Something that I did to help me when I was going through a season of anxiety, a season of burnout, all those things is before I went to bed.
• 19:03
  Taylor Krause: I would pray on my knees every single night and this posture really helped me to stay engaged and focused in my prayer, because if I'm laying down, I'm falling asleep.
• 19:16
  Taylor Krause: If I'm on my knees, it's kind of just this way that prepares your heart to meet with him.
• 19:23
  Taylor Krause: And when you do these prayers before bed, it gives you this peace.
• 19:29
  Taylor Krause: Before you fall asleep, it's like, wow, I'm able to pour out everything, all my issues, all my struggles, all my concerns for tomorrow at his feet right now and I can talk to him.
• 19:43
  Taylor Krause: And I can talk to him just like I talk to a friend.
• 19:45
  Taylor Krause: And so there isn't this feeling of like I'm trying, you know, I'm, I'm, you know.
• 19:51
  Taylor Krause: Sometimes we get this feeling when we open our Bible, where it's like I need to do word studies, I need to cross-reference, I need to read four chapters today, otherwise it doesn't count.
• 20:00
  Taylor Krause: I feel like sometimes we that can be hard, but when we pray it makes it easier.
• 20:06
  Taylor Krause: It makes it easier to meet with God because it's just like, well, you know what, he's just expecting me to talk to him, and so I really liked doing that in my season of struggling, especially because I had a lot that I just needed to share with him and a lot of frustrations, kind of like David crying out where are you?
• 20:26
  Taylor Krause: I had a lot of prayers like that to him.
• 20:28
  Taylor Krause: I can tell you that, and then I wanted to share too.
• 20:33
  Taylor Krause: James 1 5 says that if you lack any wisdom, you can ask God and he will give generously to you.
• 20:42
  Taylor Krause: He's not going to hold back, he's going to give it to you, and you can do this by coming to him in prayer and asking for wisdom.
• 20:49
  Taylor Krause: That's one of my favorite prayers.
• 20:51
  Taylor Krause: To pray is asking God for wisdom about any situation or circumstance that I'm struggling with, because the Bible tells us, girl, he is not going to not give you wisdom.
• 21:03
  Taylor Krause: If you ask.
• 21:04
  Taylor Krause: That's the Bible telling you ask.
• 21:08
  Taylor Krause: It's inviting us to ask him for wisdom, which is really, really important in our lives when we're navigating through any hard circumstances.
• 21:17
  Taylor Krause: Do you have anything to say to that?
• 21:20
  Ellen Krause: Yeah, you know I'm sitting here and I'm feeling kind of guilty that I wasn't a better role model of praying on my knees.
• 21:30
  Ellen Krause: I have done it and I'll say this that when I've done it it's usually because I've been in a state of terrible strife and there is something about that humbling position of being on our knees that I think, sets the stage for opening my heart, understanding that God is bigger than whatever this problem is.
• 21:59
  Taylor Krause: Oh, I completely agree.
• 22:00
  Taylor Krause: It's the best type of humbling, because you're getting down in this low position, you're kind of crouched over, you're envisioning being at the feet of Jesus and it kind of puts your problems in perspective.
• 22:13
  Taylor Krause: Like I am small, I am weak.
• 22:16
  Taylor Krause: I need somebody bigger than me that's willing to help and we know that he's reaching out his hand to help us.
• 22:22
  Taylor Krause: Right, christ is always interceding for us with the father.
• 22:26
  Taylor Krause: He's hearing our prayers, he's wanting to listen to us when we're struggling.
• 22:30
  Taylor Krause: So when we're praying down in that position, it's like, yep, I'm humbled, but I want to be because my time period during the day- but communicating with God can be all day.
• 23:01
  Ellen Krause: I remember reading the book, um, the brother Lawrence book, uh, P racticing the P resence of God, and he talks about just praying even in the most mundane of tasks, doing the dishes, um, anytime, I think, can help you if you are in sort of this state that, um, our emailer is talking about that.
• 23:30
  Ellen Krause: You can continue to reach out day and night.
• 23:36
  Taylor Krause: That's a really good point.
• 23:37
  Taylor Krause: I would just lastly briefly add on to that that I think breath prayers are a beautiful way to meet with God throughout the day, especially if you struggle with anxiety and you need a way to calm yourself down.
• 23:55
  Taylor Krause: I think breath prayers are a great idea and basically that's when you're breathing in, maybe a slower amount of time, so like maybe breathing in for four or five seconds, holding it just a little and breathing out a nice deep breath for another four or five seconds.
• 24:09
  Taylor Krause: So you're breathing in some sort of truth about God, who he is or what he says about you, and then you're exhaling another sort of truth about God, who he is or what he says about you, and then you're exhaling another piece of truth.
• 24:18
  Taylor Krause: It's so calming, and the one that I've been focusing on lately is breathing in I am saved.
• 24:26
  Taylor Krause: So breathing in slowly, I am saved, and then breathing out and I will be with you forever, and I think about that.
• 24:34
  Taylor Krause: And it's so calming.
• 24:35
  Taylor Krause: When I have anxiety about trivial things, doing these breath prayers it refocuses my eyes towards heaven and it really calms me down, because then I'm thinking to myself well goodness, not only am I saved, but I'm going to be with you forever.
• 24:54
  Taylor Krause: It just makes me realize he's in control.
• 24:56
  Taylor Krause: My anxiety over this one moment is actually really small in comparison to the eternity that I'm going to have with him, and I can know that I have that security right now.
• 25:09
  Taylor Krause: So that's my last thing.
• 25:10
  Taylor Krause: I think breath prayers have been really helpful for me.
• 25:13
  Taylor Krause: It's a good way to calm you down, you know, spiritually and physiologically.
• 25:20
  Ellen Krause: Yeah, that's a great tip for our emailer who sent that in.
• 25:25
  Ellen Krause: I mean, even those breath prayers could be something like even though I don't feel it, G od, I know that you're with me Like believing in God's promises and praying it back to him.
• 25:43
  Taylor Krause: Yeah, absolutely.
• 25:44
  Taylor Krause: The last tip that I'm going to share with you guys, if you're struggling with spiritual burnout, is that you can ask for help, and I think that this is so underrated.
• 26:00
  Taylor Krause: We want to try to do everything ourselves.
• 26:03
  Taylor Krause: There's maybe a little bit of shame of feeling like, well, if I'm a Christian, I shouldn't have any problems, or if I'm a Christian, then you know, I should pray these things away.
• 26:13
  Taylor Krause: The reality is there's a lot of factors that go into our lives.
• 26:18
  Taylor Krause: Like you know, when we go into our quiet time, we're bringing everything with us and some of us are carrying big loads on our shoulders and it's been weighing on us mentally.
• 26:29
  Taylor Krause: We don't have anyone to talk to about it.
• 26:32
  Taylor Krause: We know that God values community, right?
• 26:35
  Taylor Krause: I mean, god is a trinity Father, son, holy Spirit.
• 26:39
  Taylor Krause: They're always perfectly loving each other self-sacrificially.
• 26:45
  Taylor Krause: God wants community for us too.
• 26:47
  Taylor Krause: He gives us the church.
• 26:49
  Taylor Krause: We know that the church is really important.
• 26:52
  Taylor Krause: We're supposed to be kind of like a body of believers where, you know, each of us are kind of like a different body part, if you will.
• 26:59
  Taylor Krause: We're all working together.
• 27:00
  Taylor Krause: You can't have a church full of kidneys, because you need a heart, you need a stomach, you need the hands and feet of Christ and everybody working together, we're able to provide this community that we need when we're struggling.
• 27:15
  Taylor Krause: When I was going through a hard time with my phobia, I was at band practice once church worship band practice and they were asking for prayer and I remember I was like you know what?
• 27:24
  Taylor Krause: I'm kind of struggling with a phobia right now, and last summer I was really struggling with a phobia right now and and last summer I was really struggling with my phobia and I wasn't really expecting anybody to ask me what my phobia is, cause I was like, you know, maybe that's a little too personal, but someone was like, oh, what's your phobia?
• 27:39
  Taylor Krause: And I was like, oh, it's a well, it's a phobia of throwing up.
• 27:42
  Taylor Krause: I was like, I know a lot of people haven't heard about it and and they were like, oh, that's okay, you know, they prayed for me.
• 27:48
  Taylor Krause: But afterwards two people you know told me that they struggled with the same thing too.
• 27:58
  Taylor Krause: They gave me hope, they gave me encouragement, they showed me that they've walked through it.
• 28:00
  Taylor Krause: They know what it feels like.
• 28:01
  Taylor Krause: What's helped them.
• 28:03
  Taylor Krause: It was like, wow, you know, I'm not alone in what I feel, like I am Like people are going through this.
• 28:08
  Taylor Krause: Other Christians are going through this and have been able to move on with their lives and still be strong and solid in their faith Really encouraging.
• 28:19
  Taylor Krause: The other thing is I would totally recommend Christian counseling.
• 28:22
  Taylor Krause: I mean, I know a lot of people have mixed feelings about counseling.
• 28:28
  Taylor Krause: A lot of people feel like you should be able to get through everything all by yourself.
• 28:33
  Taylor Krause: You know you can't see any help because that means you don't have strong faith.
• 28:38
  Taylor Krause: I completely disagree.
• 28:39
  Taylor Krause: I think God gives us gifts.
• 28:41
  Taylor Krause: God gives people the gift of discernment, being able to ask you the right questions to help you figure out how to navigate through difficult situations.
• 28:52
  Taylor Krause: That's what counseling is.
• 28:53
  Taylor Krause: They're going to help you navigate through a difficult situation by giving you unbiased feedback.
• 28:59
  Taylor Krause: They're going to help you ask the questions you need to know and you can process through all of those things with the Lord as well.
• 29:05
  Taylor Krause: Christian therapy is great because they have the same values as you.
• 29:09
  Taylor Krause: You know they want the same things as you.
• 29:11
  Taylor Krause: So I totally have had an amazing experience.
• 29:15
  Taylor Krause: I know not everybody can say that.
• 29:17
  Taylor Krause: I've gone through several counselors, by the way, before I found one that really works for me, and sometimes it takes just the right counselor to be the good fit, and we're not always going to get that with our first or second counselor, but I would recommend asking for help and taking that leap of faith, just even looking up really quick like are there Christian counselors in my area, um, and or maybe, uh, going, even doing it online.
• 29:44
  Taylor Krause: I personally see a Christian counselor online, which which is really helpful, and she's been able to really help me work through even a lot of my roadblocks and mental blocks to reading my Bible and the pressure that I put on myself, the perfectionism.
• 30:00
  Taylor Krause: Why do I have that?
• 30:02
  Taylor Krause: Why do I feel this?
• 30:03
  Taylor Krause: You know, when they ask you the questions to help you be able to think through that somebody that's not inside of your head.
• 30:09
  Taylor Krause: You know we can't always fix ourselves because our noggins have a lot going in, in and out constantly.
• 30:17
  Taylor Krause: I believe, mom, you just did a podcast with somebody a little bit ago.
• 30:21
  Taylor Krause: It should be on our channel here, but she was talking about how we have 60,000 thoughts a day and how a lot of those are negative thoughts actually and they tend to be repetitive.
• 30:34
  Taylor Krause: So you even think the negative thoughts over and over, like you sometimes need somebody outside of you to speak into you.
• 30:41
  Taylor Krause: You know what I'm saying.
• 30:42
  Taylor Krause: Do you have anything to say to that?
• 30:46
  Ellen Krause: Yes, oh, my goodness, I would.
• 30:48
  Ellen Krause: Just I'm thinking about this person that emailed this in and, like it takes someone else, I think, to point out the fact that she's believing a lie, that just because, like you know, my relationship's terrible because I don't hear from him, well, your relationship isn't terrible and I think a lot of times it takes an outside perspective to help us realize and, you know, discern the difference between what's what's really going on versus how I'm feeling.
• 31:29
  Ellen Krause: And that doesn't negate how you're feeling, because that's very valid, but it can help set you up for believing what is true and that God is always there, even if you can't feel it.
• 31:52
  Taylor Krause: Yeah, absolutely, I completely agree.
• 31:54
  Taylor Krause: The last thing that I think I wanted to share was just simply that sometimes we have to tell ourselves that there is a purpose for our lives.
• 32:07
  Taylor Krause: God has a purpose for our lives.
• 32:10
  Taylor Krause: God has a purpose for your life and if you're in this season of burnout or struggling, there's purpose in this waiting period.
• 32:18
  Taylor Krause: And don't dismiss it, don't throw it all away, don't say, well, this is just, this is a fluke time in my walk with God.
• 32:27
  Taylor Krause: You know, this is the.
• 32:28
  Taylor Krause: This was the part that I don't tell people about.
• 32:31
  Taylor Krause: I only emphasize the highs that I have with him.
• 32:34
  Taylor Krause: No, god has a purpose for this time of the waiting.
• 32:39
  Taylor Krause: You're going to be refined, you're going to be sharpened.
• 32:42
  Taylor Krause: Don't let the enemy tell you otherwise, that just because you aren't feeling a lot, just because you feel like the season is harder than others, that it's a throwaway season.
• 32:52
  Taylor Krause: It's not.
• 32:53
  Taylor Krause: God builds character through seasons of just coming to him with discipline.
• 33:04
  Taylor Krause: We can get back on.
• 33:06
  Taylor Krause: You know what I'm saying.
• 33:12
  Taylor Krause: I don't know how many times I've fallen off my horse of reading my Bible, praying, even going to church, and the enemy's going to tell you you're too far gone.
• 33:18
  Taylor Krause: You know you're not.
• 33:20
  Taylor Krause: God will work through any and everything in your life.
• 33:23
  Taylor Krause: God works out all things, all things for the good of those who love him.
• 33:28
  Taylor Krause: He has a will for your life and his will is going to prevail.
• 33:32
  Taylor Krause: That's what I tell my friends when they're feeling like, oh no, I botched something up, I think I took the wrong path.
• 33:40
  Taylor Krause: Is God's plan for my life now thwarted?
• 33:44
  Taylor Krause: No, we don't have that much power, we don't have that much control.
• 33:50
  Taylor Krause: God's will for your life is going to prevail.
• 33:53
  Taylor Krause: Don't let the enemy tell you otherwise.
• 33:56
  Taylor Krause: He has a purpose.
• 33:57
  Taylor Krause: He's working in your life right now, as we speak, and you're going to be the light of Christ right now on this earth.
• 34:06
  Ellen Krause: Thank you so much, T aylor, for wrapping that up on such an encouraging note.
• 34:12
  Ellen Krause: There's been so many times that I can think of for myself that I have experienced kind of.
• 34:21
  Ellen Krause: You know what our emailer has been talking about and all the things that you touched on, and especially for me, I know being in a small group with other women that can help you see that there's purpose in the waiting, help you understand that you might be believing lies.
• 34:44
  Ellen Krause: All of those types of things have helped me tremendously.
• 34:49
  Ellen Krause: Those types of things have helped me tremendously, and so I just want to encourage our emailer.
• 35:05
  Ellen Krause: Thank you for writing that in, and I just really hope that you feel encouraged and don't give up.
• 35:08
  Ellen Krause: It's not about trying harder.
• 35:09
  Ellen Krause: It's not about trying harder.
• 35:10
  Ellen Krause: It's about trusting and believing that God is who he says he is and, whether you feel it or not, he's there.
• 35:31
  Taylor Krause: I really appreciate it as well.
• 35:33
  Taylor Krause: And for any of you guys who are wanting encouragement, come join us every week on the podcast.
• 35:41
  Taylor Krause: My mentor mama has a lot of guests that come on as well.
• 35:46
  Taylor Krause: Um, we're hoping to do more things in the future where we're able to be me, M entor M ama, maybe Ashley she's giving birth soon, so who knows but we're going to do more of us too.
• 35:58
  Taylor Krause: But, seriously, she does invite guests on here that are experts in their field and the Holy Spirit is working in them to share a word into your life.
• 36:10
  Taylor Krause: So, if you need encouragement, join us each week on the podcast.
• 36:13
  Taylor Krause: We also come to you live on YouTube every week as well Coffee and Bible Time, and I'll just encourage you with this too.
• 36:23
  Taylor Krause: If you go to our website, you can sign up for our email, and on our email, we give you guys a lot of free tips, information, advice, pdfs, encouragement.
• 36:36
  Taylor Krause: So take advantage of all the free resources that we want to give you guys, as well as, maybe, some of our courses, because, hey, maybe you're listening to this and you're like this is all helpful, but you are really struggling with understanding how to study the Bible.
• 36:52
  Taylor Krause: We have courses that can help you with that too, where we teach you how to study the Bible what we learned in college, at Bible College.
• 37:01
  Taylor Krause: We're able to actually share that in a way where it's manageable, it's understandable and it gives you the practical how-tos to study the Bible, so that could be helpful for you.
• 37:15
  Ellen Krause: Yeah, really, really broadening your understanding of who God is and will have a tremendous impact on your walk.
• 37:23
  Ellen Krause: You can find all of that information at coffeeandbibletimecom.
• 37:28
  Ellen Krause: All right, thanks again, T aylor, for being here.
• 37:32
  Ellen Krause: We appreciate you all listening.
• 37:34
  Ellen Krause: We would love it if you would leave a review.
• 37:36
  Ellen Krause: Have a blessed day.