"Come to me, all you who are WEARY and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and LEARN from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is EASY and my burden is LIGHT." Matthew 11:28-30
I think it is safe to say that we all deal with stress in some way at some point. Whether it is from school, work, boyfriends, family, or friends, we all have it. A little stress can be a good thing though! It is good for your immune system and it motivates you to get things done. But, there are negative effects to excessive stress such as heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, and not to mention your attitude and outlook on life can completely change! I have experienced some negative effects. Mine include break outs, bad moods, and maybe a little overeating. (ha) So, how do we deal with it?
The first step is admitting you have stress in your life. No, this isn't an AA meeting :) but really, you always have to acknowledge the problems you have in life. God knows that we have stress, it's pretty natural. That is why He gives us several verses in the Bible that address this issue. So, I am going to start with my absolute favorite verse in the Bible:
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7
So, lets break it down. In the Bible, the Lord addresses stress as "worry" or "anxiety." So, he simply tells us to not be anxious about ANYTHING. The moment we feel stressed out, we should pray. Tell Him everything you are worried or stressed out about. Then, when we pray, we should ALWAYS give thanks. After all, He has blessed us in more ways than we deserve, so why be selfish by just simply asking Him to take our stress away? I still remember when I was in 8th grade, a preacher from Mexico came to speak to us at church camp. He told us his story about all the struggles he had in his life and how his family still did not have much. But, I specifically remember one thing he told us and that was "If you do not wake up every morning and immediately thank God for everything He has blessed you with, shame on you!" He was so passionate about focusing on the positive things in life, that he didn't seem to care about things that other people may consider negative. Finally, if we do these things, He tells us that we will have PEACE. This is something we all want, right?
So, how do we cast all our anxiety on Him as 1 Peter 5:7 tells us to do? Well, it's simple. We should "seek ye first." We should in everything we do, put HIM first. If we do that, everything will fall into place. Maybe not the way we want it to at first, but the most important thing is that we are living for HIM. When you worry, you are doing nothing but putting yourself first. It seems pretty blunt, but that is the way it is. For example, when I am worrying about my grades, I am putting MY cares and concerns first. When I worry about relationships, I am putting myself first. Another blunt fact about worrying is that when you worry, it just means you are not trusting God. So, all we can do is try our best, and trust that God will do the rest. Spending time on worry, just takes up time that you could use to focus on time with God.
We have a great college minister at Sherrod Avenue, and we just recently discussed this topic. One excellent point he made was that we should focus on meditating on God's Word and focus on praising Him. For it is IMPOSSIBLE to be stressed and praising Him at the same time. Great point, right?
Next time you are stressed, just remember: take a deep breath, pray, give thanks, focus on HIM and then maybe eat some chocolate ice cream as you watch your worries disappear. :)
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