“In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves.”
Psalms 127:2
Great stresses are alleviated knowing and embracing that God loves us, and that He has it – but arriving at this truth is easier said than done. Most of us mortals require experiencing it firsthand, seeing before believing. It doesn’t help that we dwell in a very loud world where it’s easy to become distracted and either forget or completely miss His work.
Yet taking a step of faith that God has it by doing the things on this path that He desires, and seeking His purpose in all circumstances, creates a great weapon against the ravages of stress.
Our journey will not be perfect, but the destination completely warrants the fight. Even the Apostle Paul did not always do what he wanted and knew he should do. He artfully elaborated upon this in Romans 7. But he fought on, as he wrote in Philippians 3, to an amazing and glorious end.
It’s an imperfect journey, but it’s the valleys and peaks and the torrents and streams along the path, with God’s perfect company, that constitute a real transformation. Embrace it! His peace awaits.
God has it.
STEPS
- Recognize your stress
- Determine the sources
- Understand God’s take on stress
- Set our hearts and minds on Him
- Seek Him first
- Communicate deeply with God from the heart through prayer, and listen
- Connect with and understand God through devotion
- Establish balance
- His priorities
- Feed the machine
- Guard the gates
- Dethrone other gods and worlds
- Break chains
- Seek healing
- Forgive
- Be forgiven
- Live for God, who will direct us on the journey – according to His view, His plan, His way
- Repeat
Remember, you can line up Bible Plans by topic in this app that will encourage and direct you on your journey. And come back to this plan if need be. You are prayed for.
THE HABITUAL ASPECTS OF STRESS, AUTO-OVERDRIVE (ESP TRAVELERS, TYPE A’S, CONSTANT BUZZING, EVEN IF NO ANXIETY, HABITUAL OVERDRIVE, AND PERSONALITY TYPE/HAVE TO BE DOING SOMETHING), NEED TO WORK WITH COUNSELOR, CAN OVERCOME, NEED TO OVERCOME)
Scriptures:
Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 7:14-25 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Philippians 3:7-14 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.