Stress is a killer I wonder what brings the most stress into your life
is it your family maybe some friend maybe it's your job maybe it's your health
Maybe it's the direction of our nation but when you look around there's just stress everywhere
This is a time in a period of great stress and people are feeling it and they're bearing it
and they're going to all kinds of means to eliminate it in their life and yet it doesn't work
there are people for example who have gone to all kind of drugs prescription drugs and street drugs
alcohol of all kinds anything to get rid of this feeling that we have that uh somehow it's
bearing us down and grinding us down and we're looking for an escape and it's interesting that
none of the things we've come up with has any escapement to it I'll tell you the truth
there are so many things in the world and in our own lives
that we could worry about that if we don't decide not to and get help from God in learning how to
not let those worry thoughts in our heart I mean that's all we're going to have day in and day out
is some kind of worry in John 14 Jesus said and I love this do not let your hearts be troubled
distressed distressed and agitated you believe in and adhere to and trust and rely on God now
believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely on me so one of the things that I've had to face in
my life and it's a little bit unpleasant for us but the truth is is believing God brings us into
rest and so if I say that I'm believing God if I say that I'm trusting God but I'm worried all
the time then the truth is is I may be trying to trust God I may want to trust God but it's
obvious that I'm struggling with it God has given us a free will and it's up to us if we decide
to worry or to trust God and I do believe the longer that you're in a relationship with God the
more experience you have with God the more you see him bring deliverance into your life the easier it
becomes to not worry it is more challenging for a young believer especially one that has a lot
of problems because you're just learning about God but boy when you know God when you know God
there's a difference in learning about God and knowing God no wonder the apostle Paul prayed
my determined purpose is to know him he's writing the Philippians and he's saying this is more
important to me than anything else to know him and to know that no matter what's going on in my life
he will deliver me from it and you can you're gonna you're gonna put your trust in something
if it's not God then it's gonna be yourself it's gonna be your friends the government the world
your bank account your employer and all those things are shaky and very unstable but God is not
he is the one thing that is never shaken that's why the bible refers to him as the rock he's a
rock that cannot be moved and you know what how many things have you worried about in the past
that now you look back and God took care of it and all of your worry and all your stress
certainly didn't do any good but it did do harm because all it does is hurt you
Psalm 55:22 cast your burdens on the Lord releasing the weight of them and
he will sustain you he will never allow the consistently righteous to be moved made to slip
to fall or to fail he will never allow those that are his children to fail
worry steals our joy
worry is the opposite of trusting God
your time is too important to waste it worrying as soon as trouble comes the first thing you ought to
be thinking is what does the word have to say as soon as the problem comes what does the word
have to say and when you get in the word the word and you respond that way stress won't be able to
dominate your life because when trouble shows up you know how to respond to trouble before it comes
It's amazing to me Lord that every problem that we deal with the answer is in your word every single
one of them and obviously if we live the way you lead us to live we're not going to have stress
you see I went for a long period of time trying to change everything around me
and that may be where you're at right now well if you'll stop doing that I'll hit peace
and if you stop doing that I'll have peace and if you start doing this then I'll have peace
if I had more money I'd have peace and if I had a better boss I'd have peace it was
always something out here that was the reason why I didn't have peace so what is our options
well we only have two as far as I can figure continue to be stressed out until we fall apart
that's an option and sadly I know that some of you will take that option
or you could learn to not be affected by it by not letting it get into you
what's around us doesn't have to get in us
amen peace has been defined as a quiet heart and boy do I love that a quiet
heart Jesus was surrounded by stressful situations rejected by family and friends
some of you going through that right now you're letting it stress you out
his disciples needed a lot of correction he was mentoring them for the job of
carrying the gospel to the world and only had a very short time to do it
huge crowds followed him everywhere and they all wanted miracles healings and help of some kind
some of you moms you feel that way the husband wants something all the kids want something then
your parents call you up and they want something then your mother-in-law wants something and it's
just everybody wants a piece of me and I don't have any pieces left how many ever feel like that
but see Jesus although he was there for people he had boundaries Peter denied even
knowing him at a crucial time in his life and Peter was one of his good close friends
he was he mentally mentally and emotionally dealing continually
with knowing and being aware of the suffering that he was going to have to endure on the cross
and yet in the midst of all of it
God always wants us to come to him in prayer and he's always ready to
help us and he's always ready to do what we cannot do he is a miracle-working God
all kinds of things can be going on around us but if we stay in communication with God
and we continue to lean on him and rely on him we can still have his peace that
doesn't mean we have to love the circumstance that doesn't even mean that it doesn't hurt
but it does mean that we can have this special kind of peace
the peace that the world offers is a peace that only works when circumstances suit us
but Jesus has given us something that's far superior to that he's giving us a peace that
really the best way I know how to say is a piece that just doesn't make any sense
it's an unreasonable piece but you honestly can have peace in the most difficult circumstance
if you really have a depth of relationship with God if you're going to live in peace
it's not going to happen by accident every day we have opportunities to get upset
to be offended to live worried life happens people get on your nerves unexpected bills
a family member's in the hospital if you wait for all your circumstances to calm down
then you're going to have peace then you're going to stop worrying you'll be waiting your whole life
God never promised that he would keep us from difficulties he never said that we
wouldn't have storms but he did say he would give us peace in the midst of the storms
he calls it a peace that passes understanding that means despite what's going on around you
you still have peace the scripture says cast your cares on the Lord you have to learn to
turn it over to God you weren't designed to carry that heavy load it will frustrate you
here's the key when you rest God goes to work and say God I trust you my life is in your hands
I'm not going to worry I'm not going to live stressed you have this all figured
out so I'm going to be still and know that you are god that's when God goes to work
take the problem off the throne and put God back up on the throne if you're talking more about your
problem than you are about God you have the wrong thing on the throne don't go another five years
letting worry rob you of your joy rob you of your peace put your foot down and say that's
it this is a new day no more worrying for me I'm gonna guard my mind I'm gonna stay by the
still waters I'm going to live from a place of peace remember when you rest God goes to work