Biblical Self-Care: How to Live Like Jesus

Self-care – I feel like it’s everywhere. Especially in the world of betrayal trauma recovery! I mean right? I can’t be the only one who feels bombarded by “experts” demanding the necessity to prioritize self-care. The thing is, as a person who is passionate about learning how to live like Jesus, self-care is an idea that has always kinda rubbed me the wrong way. The concept feels contrary to the self-sacrificing life I’ve always believed I’m called to lead as a follower of Christ. 

However, when the proverbial uh-hum… dookey?… hit the fan, I was forced to re-evaluate my beliefs in just about every area of my life. I had to take a magnifying glass to my heart and allow the Word of God to divide out the things that didn’t line up. As I started down the long road to recovery, I couldn’t ignore the barrage of self-care imperatives. Everyone seemed to be suggesting that I couldn’t heal unless I learned to prioritize taking care of myself. I wasn’t buying it, but I realized my need to seek God and ask Him to help me find truth. I wanted to know what Biblical self-care looks like, so I could apply those practices to my own life.

The World’s Self-Care vs, Biblical Self-Care

The incessant drum-beat message of self-care the world pounds into us is this: We must prioritize ourselves because everyone else needs us to be at 110%. How can we expect to save the world if we’re not making sure our own needs are met first? And since we’re doing so much for everyone else, we deserve a little something for us too.

Every part of that message makes me bristle. It is prideful, selfish and completely out of sync with the heart of Christ. 

However, as I looked to Scripture, I realized that while I was busy pointing the “it’s prideful” finger at the self-care community, I was missing the pride at the root of my own beliefs. (It was not a painless discovery!) Somewhere along the way I learned to understand Biblical self-care and how it differs from the message of the world.

So while the world says we must prioritize ourselves, God says we must prioritize Him (not our own self-righteous self-sacrifice).

While the world tells us the people in our lives need us to be at 110% so we can swoop in and save the day for each of them, the Bible tells us we must empty ourselves at the foot of the cross. We learn to understand that the “saving” our world needs can be found only in the work Jesus has already done on the cross. Our role is simply to allow our lives to point people to that truth.

And as the world shouts the importance of self-elevation and claiming what we deserve, the love of Jesus helps us see that what we really deserve is an eternity separated from God in hell, but that the free gift of God is absolute forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. As our eyes are opened to the UNdeserved privilege of our position in Christ, we become consumed with the realities of grace. Now that is self-care!

How to Live Like Jesus and Practice Biblical Self-Care

As with so many other things in life, there is no better teacher than Jesus. He walked the messy, dirty paths of this life as a perfect example for us to follow. The life of every believer should reflect a desire to learn how to live like Jesus lived. So let’s start our search for truth about self-care by examining the way He lived. I, for one, was surprised by what I found. 

*Interested in learning more about who Jesus is in your quest to learn how to live like Jesus? Check out this post which goes into detail about the attributes of Jesus and the special characteristics that sets Him apart from the rest of the Trinity.

1. Jesus, Solitude, and Prayer

 Have you ever noticed how consistently Jesus prioritized time alone to seek out and spend time with His Father? Check out these passages for a few examples. (You can just click each one to read them) –  Mark 1:35, Matt. 14:23, Luke 6:12, Luke 9:28, Mark 6:46.

Luke 5:15-16 – …the reports of His power spread even faster, and crowds came to hear Him preach and to be healed of their diseases. But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. 

The Gospels make it clear that quiet prayer time was a priority to Jesus, but until recently that truth didn’t hold much depth for me. I simply thought it was an example of the importance of prayer. While it certainly is that, another truth hit me square in the face recently: The Bible says that Jesus often WITHDREW to the wilderness for prayer.

In other words, people were crowded around, making demands of His time and energy, and He figuratively said no. Often! He left problems He had the capacity to solve unsolved and chose something else for His time.

Jesus could have spent that time healing more people, setting more captives free, or teaching the Truth to greater and greater masses. But He didn’t. He had a limit. He recognized the importance of time alone with His Father, and He made it a priority.  

That, sisters, is self-care. Solid, God-honoring, Biblical self-care: To recognize our need for spiritual renewal and intimacy with our Heavenly Father and to prioritize that need above the needs of others. 

In order to live like Jesus, we need to seek out solitude, or to withdraw, even when there are legitimate matters that demand our attention (even from the people we love), on a regular basis because we have the humility to realize how much we need Him to fill us up!

The Hard Truth for Me in Learning How to Live Like Jesus

Here’s the really hard truth about that though: Too often, my problem is that I think far too highly of the importance of my own impact on the world. I think I’m the answer to the world’s problems. My pride tells me that unless I address the issues right now, they won’t get solved.

I convince myself that to neglect these issues would be selfish. When, in fact, my god-complex is actually what’s selfish! Ooof!! 

When I look to the example of Christ, I am humbled. He actually WAS the answer to the world’s problems! Yet, He trusted His Father enough to obediently walk away in order to re-focus and re-align Himself to the Father’s will. 

Oh how prideful I am!  

“Lord, help me to place the world’s problems in Your hands, where they belong. Help me to trust Your purpose and plan, and to recognize my need to seek You in order to properly align myself to them.” 

*For more on pride and humility, check out this post on Jonah’s story from the Bible.

2. Jesus was Sensitive to the Leading of the Holy Spirit, and Willing to Change His Plans.

While Jesus did seek out solitude and withdraw for prayer on a regular basis, He was not bound to some ritualistic practice that could never be altered. Unlike so many of us, He was under no delusion that His plans were more important than His Father’s will, so He was able to discern the Father’s leading because He was wholly connected in humility through the power of the Spirit.  

Mark 6:30-34 – The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told him all they had done and taught. Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat. 

So they left by boat for a quiet place, where they could be alone. But many people recognized them and saw them leaving, and people from many towns ran ahead along the shore and got there ahead of them. Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. 

I didn’t think this was a point I was going to make as I started writing this, but the Bible has a funny way of leading us into truths we hadn’t planned on learning. As I studied the topic of self-care in the life of Christ, attempting to make sure one last time that what I wanted to say lined up, this story just kept popping out at me again and again. I saw within it an important lesson. One of balance and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. 

In this passage, Jesus withdrew from the crowds with His disciples, as He had so many other times before. The Twelve had just returned from a ministry tour and were likely both exhausted, and excited to tell Jesus everything that had happened. Jesus knew what was needed was some quiet time to re-group, learn together, rest, and re-focus. In other words, the group needed to practice a little self-care!  

Something a little different happened, though. The crowds saw them leaving and followed. When the group got to the place which was intended to be a quiet retreat, a crowd of over 5,000 men, women, and children waited expectantly.  

The Bible says Jesus saw them, and “had compassion on them.”

He knew the disciples needed some time alone with Him. He knew He needed time with His Father. He had left the crowds in order to meet those needs, and yet when a different scenario presented itself, Jesus responded with compassion, and willingness to change his plans. 

The Complicated Dilemma in Learning How to Live Like Jesus

Can I say the same? If I’ve planned some quiet time to eat, sleep, read a good book, watch a movie, take a nice bath, or even to study the Bible or pray, and God presents me with an opportunity to minister to someone else instead, do I respond with compassion? 

If I answer that question honestly, I would have to say that unless I am fully walking in the Spirit, my response is unlikely to be compassion. It’s far more probable that what will spill out will either be some sort of reluctant, obligation riddled martyrdom, or snarky irritability. Either way, it’s no way for a woman of God to demonstrate how to live like Jesus! 

It sort of seems like a contradiction though, doesn’t it? How do we learn to have the humility to realize the world doesn’t need us in order to get by, while at the same time being sensitive to the fact that God might ask us to get involved in something we intended to leave alone? 

How can we ever hope to know the difference? How can we know when to say no and spend time seeking God, and when to set aside our self-care plans and compassionately give of ourselves instead? 

I believe the answer can be found in this final point: 

3. Jesus Understood what Biblical Self-Care is Really About

Jesus understood the spiritual danger in over-prioritizing physical comfort, while neglecting spiritual rejuvenation. In so doing, He showed us what truly matters when it comes to self-care. 

Matthew 4:4 – But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” 

After Jesus was baptized, He went out into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights to be tempted by Satan. I’m sure we all understand that this time was stressful. What we might call a “high pressure” situation. So we can safely assume that He spent extra energy on self-care in order to be adequately equipped to handle those temptations.

But the Bible doesn’t tell us about how, in preparation for the showdown, Jesus took a long walk, or ate a box of chocolates, or got a massage. What it does tell us is that He spent those 40 days fasting and in prayer.  

I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to fast for an extended length of time, but it’s not easy! It doesn’t “feel” good, and it certainly wouldn’t fall into the stereo-typical category of self-care. Yet, it IS a spiritual discipline with the power to demolish strongholds, and to draw the worshiper into deep, intimate relationship with God.

*Interested in learning more about Biblical fasting, and how you could incorporate it into your self-care routine? Check out this awesome post by my friend Tiffany!

As Jesus faced off with Satan, He found Himself fully equipped because He had spent 40 days spiritually preparing Himself for the challenge.  

True, Biblical Self-Care

What I glean from this is that personal strength of character does not come as a result of pampering or indulgence. Rather, it is the by-product of fierce dedication to the Lord God Almighty.

When I face the trials of life, I don’t need to stop and take time to spoil myself. I need to stop and take time to empty myself before the throne of God and ask Him to fill me back up. Doing so is an absolute MUST! I won’t heal, I won’t thrive, I won’t find victory if I don’t tenaciously insist on whatever I need to get it done. 

In turn, I can trust that when I do, God will come through for me, just as He did for His Son. I can rest assured that when I’ve given all that I am to Him, He will in turn make sure I’m cared for. 

Matthew 4:11 – Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus..  

Conclusions on Biblical Self Care and How to Live Like Jesus

Let me assure you, I’m not suggesting there’s anything wrong with doing the things the world would qualify as “self-care.”

I don’t believe it’s wrong to indulge in a decadent dessert or enjoy some time doing something that brings me pleasure like taking a bath or reading a good book. (Or all three, at the same time!) I’m not suggesting that Jesus’s life didn’t include some of these things, and that as we’re figuring out how to live like Jesus we won’t be able to do anything that is just purely enjoyable.

What I am proposing is that those things won’t offer any solutions to the problems of life. These practices are not the answer the world wants us to believe they are. 

Rather, the self-care that matters is a commitment to seeking God with all that we are, making our lives an example of how to live like Jesus did. When we follow His example, and prioritize our spiritual health above all else, we will find answers to impossible questions. We’ll know which paths to take. We’ll be able to navigate life with a peace that passes all understanding and be filled with the joy of the Lord in the direst of circumstances. I think this verse in 1 Timothy sums it up pretty well: 

1 Timothy 4:7-10 – Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly. “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” This is a trustworthy saying and everyone should accept it. This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers 

*Want to read more about Biblical self-care? Check out this post that’s all about the role of the church in self-care.
*Or, this post about the importance of a Sabbath Rest in following the example of how to live like Jesus when it comes to self-care.
*Or even this one that talks about some practical steps we can take to practice Biblical self-care in our own lives.