Dr. Lyndon Wall of Refresh Ministries points out that burn-out is often predicated by a loss of hope.

Dr. Wall prescribes six remedies to recover your hope and prevent burn-out.

First, ask yourself — What is my understanding of my call to impact the world?  See if you can write it out in a sentence. Second, ask — What is my hope level of this happening?  Rate on a scale of 1-10:  One meaning little hope, 10 fullness of confidence. Third, ask — How has your ministry experience affected your belief in yourself, other people and God?  Has there been a sliding toward negative attitudes in any of these three categories? Fourth — Consider the difference between faithfulness and impact.  Which was your calling to?  Often when we are called to a certain ministry, we add our own assumptions about how that ministry is going to change the world.  When our assumptions don’t pan out we move easily to despair. ...