Am I Giving Too Much?

I teach three classes a day, and all three classes are at different levels. Although I’ve been trained in differentiating my instruction, it has taken me awhile to really hone those skills. This year I think I got it. The needs of my students draw different things from me. In my inexperience I was working, working, working in an effort to reach my students in the same way, and that isn’t what worked. I have students who are self-directed and others who need more hand holding, and differentiation is working better now that I recognize what the classes need individually. The same can be said about the level in which people receive the word of God and how they act on that word, and what I heard a couple of pastors say now makes sense. Both seasoned pastors said that different churches and audiences draw out different levels of anointing from them. They can take the same message and preach it three different times, but the way the word will be received is based on the needs of the audience. Well, maybe their needs and their desire for the word. I’m sharing this because I’ve entered a season where I know I need a mental break. I have been giving, giving, and giving, and I feel my well running empty, which made me go back to these sermons and my training on differentiation. I believe I took Paul’s message about being all things to all men to the extreme. In I Corinthians 9:22, Paul writes, “…I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” In verses 19 through 21 he talks about being a servant and teaching people based on their experience. Of course the Holy Spirit equipped Paul, so he was also being all things to all men through the power of the Holy Spirit. How many of us can tell the difference between working on our own strength and working under the anointing of the Spirit? I would like to say that it’s easily recognizable, but that hasn’t been my recent truth. Over the past few months of writing and working and working and writing my tank has become empty. I even talked to a friend about being more unplugged from people and social media. Wait? Didn’t Paul say he was a servant who became all things to all people? Should I even be thinking about being more unplugged? Today as I struggle to balance my life and how I spend my time, I’m glad that God has brought all of this to mind. 1. I’ve been angry more often because I’m less connected to God. 2. I’ve been operating in my own strength and not under the power of the Holy Spirit. 3. I have tried to give everything to everyone, but it is clear I can’t do that in my own strength. I am back to another square one, and that is the square that says we are exhausted because we do too much for too many people in our own strength. Surely that is enough to make us disappointed, overwhelmed, and angry. So once again here I am pressing reset. Here I am recognizing I can do nothing apart from God. Here I am incredibly grateful that God has revealed this before I go too far down the path to becoming Angry Woman again.