Saturday Scripture Gold with Bibi: Stress...What Is It Good For?

Hello, and welcome to Saturday Scripture Gold! Thank you for taking time out of your busy weekend to drop by!

"Men create to themselves a thousand needless anxieties by a vain search after a thing that never was, nor ever will be found upon earth." -T. Adams

For many people these days stress has become a way of life. And the sad truth is all our experience with stress has taught us that not only does it eat away at the joy of life-it eats away at us as well because living with stress hurts us in several ways. Here are just a few examples:

> 12-hour work days steal precious family time damaging or even destroying FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS.

> Stress hurts us PHYSICALLY and can cause everything from panic attacks and heart palpitations to high blood pressure and coronary disease.

> It has even been linked to cancer.

> And-our panicked efforts to complete our endless "to do" lists also can do incredible EMOTIONAL damage.

All our "shoulds" and "oughts" and "musts" hit us like strong gusts of wind, driving our lives onto shallow reefs of frustration-and even despair. Thanks to stress, the suicide rate for Americans under thirty years of age has increased dramatically in the past decade. Here's some shocking news, every day in the United States over seventy people take their lives. That's more than three each hour, twenty-four hours a day!

How can we change this? We try to exercise, eat the right foods, get plenty of rest, etc., and yet we are more stressed out than ever! What can one do to help alleviate this stress that is killing us in droves? What is it that we are we missing?

We need to learn how to counter the root source of stress. We need to go back to the Bible, the "instruction manual for life" that God has given us! Dear friends, God's Word is the best place to look for help in dealing with any problem we face in life-including stress.

Here are some practical steps that we can take to help reduce stress in our lives outside of the healthy physical things we can do..

1. Read the Bible - Committing ourselves to God's safekeeping requires that we grow in our knowledge of God and love for Him. Thus, the most important thing we can do is study the Scriptures, pray, and meditate on God's promises to His faithful people (Romans 15:4).

2. Be realistic - Peace of mind does not depend on solving all the problems, righting all the wrongs, removing all the imperfections, or getting all we want - (cf. Ecclesiastes 8:16-17). Some things will not change. We need to be realistic enough to accept that there are problems that have no solutions and situations that must simply be lived through.

Realistic knowledge of our own limitations ought to cause us to relax and slow down. Besides the noble art of getting things done is the noble art of leaving things undone! We must learn to let go of some problems and allow the Lord to be in charge of them (1 Peter 5:7; cf. Proverbs 3:5,6).

3. Be flexible - Change is inevitable; we have got to be resilient, adaptable, adjustable (cf. Philippians 4:11-12). Under stress, if we can't bend, we will surely break. Our faith must be in Him who changes not. There are some changes we ought to resist without compromise; wisdom can tell us when to change and when to hold our ground.

4. Focus on the good cares, minimize the unnecessary ones - In the Bible, cares can be either good or bad:

1) Good - 1 Corinthians 12:25; 2 Corinthians 11:28; Philippians 2:20
2) Bad - Matthew 13:22; Philippians 4:6; 1 Peter 5:7

We tend to become distracted by many relatively unimportant cares, and don't care enough about the things we ought to (Matthew 13:22). When the mind is distracted by many pursuits, we get very little benefit from any of them. Really only one thing is necessary (Luke 10:41,42; cf. Matthew 6:33,34)

5. Learn to live one day at a time - Proper use of today diminishes anxiety about tomorrow (cf. Matthew 6:34). Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its worries and sorrows; it only empties today of its strengths.

Worry is the interest paid on trouble before it falls due. Many, if not most, of our fears will turn out to be unfounded. Winston Churchill said on his deathbed that he had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which never happened.

6. Stay busy - Anxiety and idleness often go hand-in-hand. Despair is a form of laziness. Blessed is the person who is too busy to worry in the daytime, and too sleepy to worry at night! Much good can be accomplished, even in adverse circumstances, if we will quit concentrating on what cannot be done and do what CAN be done.

7. Learn contentment - This is a lesson Paul had learned (Philippians 4:11-13). We need to be able to rejoice in the Lord, which we can do if we continually count our blessings (Philippians 4:4,6). The Christian ought to be able to see the silver lining in the darkest cloud.

The discontented Christian may lose his soul because of it (1 Timothy 6:6-8; Hebrews 13:5,6). Stress and anxiety often comes from having too much, rather than too little (Ecclesiastes 5:12).

Our wealth depends not so much on what we have, as what we can do without. When a problem produces anxiety within us, the very best thing we can do than bathe the problem in two things: reverence and gratitude!

To summarize all of this, the Christian is given the means to deal with anxiety...

a. Peace that comes through prayer (cf. Philippians 4:6-7)
b. Reassuring confidence from trusting in God (cf. Psalm 23:1-6).

Whenever the feelings of insecurity, helplessness, and isolation produce anxiety... Focus on putting your trust in God. Read the Bible, be realistic, be flexible, focus on the good cares, minimize the unnecessary ones, learn to live one day at a time, stay busy, and learn contentment.

Let's pray:

O Father, give us the humility which realizes its ignorance, admits its mistakes, recognizes its need, welcomes advice, accepts rebuke. Help us always to praise rather than to criticize, to sympathize rather than to discourage, to build rather than to destroy, and to think of people at their best rather than at their worst. This we ask for thy name's sake. Amen

Until next time...

Have a blessed week!

Bibi