Coping With Stress
Coping With Stress
Philippians 4: 6, 7; Psalm 37
Stress is a reality in our life.
Can you think of at least one stressful situation you had to deal with during the last week?
Perhaps, you would rather not think about it.
In his book, Self Help, David Stoop has an entire section on stress and what it can do to us.
He writes that 40,000,000 allergies a year are stress related.
Thirty million people suffer from hypertension.
Twenty million have ulcers; and one out of three Americans suffer from a being overweight
because of stress.
Two hundred and thirty million prescriptions for tranquilizers are filled each year.
One person in 10 has a serious alcohol problem which is in some way related to stress.
According to medical research, 75-90 percent of all illnesses are caused by stress in modern life.
One of the wonderful things about the Word of God is that it doesn't leave us hanging.
The world can provide the statistics, but after they have been quoted, basically it is up to us
to do the best we can to cope.
What is wonderful about God's Word is that we can take it and applied it to our lives and receive help.
No one is immune to negative stress.
Christians are human, and they are vulnerable to human foibles and problems.
Problems cause stress.
Researchers have cataloged more than 100 major causes of stress.
These causes fall primarily into three basic categories:
1) Life changes (marriage, divorce, separation, death of a loved one, sickness or personal injury)
2) Work-related factors (promotions, transfers, job loss, new responsibilities)
3) Environmental problems (pollution, crime, noise, weather, living conditions)
The secret to coping with stress is to understand yourself, and to be able to know when
you're getting near the " breaking point."
That's the point when stress becomes harmful.
And it is when normal stress develops into distress.
There are several signs or signals that occur when you get close to this area of harm.
You will know that when you get under harmful stress, your body will not to simulate
new information it is given.
You stop listening as you should.
You don't remember things you should.
In effect, you become overloaded and begin to burn out mentally and emotionally.
Also, your mental horizons began to close in.
Although God has given you a creative mind that serves as a problem solver,
instead of seeing potential solutions to the problems, you start to see problems
in every solution.
Your creativity reaches a dead-end.
You will no longer see alternative courses to action.
You will feel stalemated in a battle against life's negative factors.
Often, you will begin to think back to better days and times.
Sometimes, a person can even become childish -- breaking things and pouting.
In adult life, these responses can be self-destructive.
Some people lose the ability to rid themselves of these harmful habits.
They cannot make positive changes.
For example, when under heavy stress we all have a hard time saying, "No".
Therefore, we often wind up increasing our work load instead of decreasing it.
Ironically, we seem to think this will help us work ourselves out of the pressure cooker.
We become weary.
We wake up in the morning, and we are still tired.
When we are under excessive stress, our body craves more rest than usual.
We toss and turn at night.
The fatigue we feel, compounds itself.
Ultimately, we experience fits of depression and grief and great bouts of anxiety.
Unless reversed, these symptoms eventually can lead to nervous breakdowns, phobias,
or feelings of complete alienation from the world.
Some researchers believe that 70% of all physical illness is related to stress.
In progressing through the danger signals of stress, we get into the area we referred
to earlier as burnout.
There are five signs or signals that indicate a developing phase of burnout in your life.
1. Decreased energy
You know what should be done, but you just don't have the energy to do it.
2. Feelings of failure
You begin to feel overwhelmed with feelings of failure and of not being able to measure up.
You feel you are not accomplishing what you should, and you begin to judge yourself harshly.
3. Reduced sense of reward
Even when you are rewarded for something you have done well, you don't feel as though
the reward is adequate.
Your sense of competition disappears, and you are motivated to be the top dog of anything, any more.
4. Sense of helplessness
You begin to feel there is no way out.
You carry with you a constant sense of helplessness, and of being out of control.
5. Cynicism and negativism
You have a tendency to become cynical and bitter, and to look at life with a negative view.
You tend to focus on only the bad part of life.
These are the traits of a person going through the burnout stage caused by stress.
Let us see what God's Word has to say that can help us to cope with stress.
In Philippians 4: 6, 7, Paul tells us not to worry about anything, but instead, to pray about everything.
He talks about our anxieties and worries.
Philippians is a good book to read if you're having stress problems.
The apostle Paul provides the best pattern to follow if you want to find somebody who knew
how to cope with stress.
His letters provide excellent advice on dealing with pressure.
Paul reminds us to " Trust in the Lord… Rejoice always…
He is able to do exceedingly abundantly ..… My God shall supply all of your need.…
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
There are many great and positive phrases in the writings of Paul.
Then, we can go to the Gospels and read the words of Jesus for they have a comforting effect.
Jesus said, " Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you."
(Matthew 6: 33)
Jesus talks about seeing the sparrow when it falls from its nest and counting the hairs on your head.
He sees the lily in the fields.
He tells us to take no thought of tomorrow for tomorrow will take care of itself.
Don't be anxious.
He says, " Ask, seek and knock, and it will be opened unto you."
When we read the writings of Paul, and hear the words of Jesus, they offer a familiar ring
to us as Christians.
The fact is that there are many Biblical answers which will enable to cope with stress.
Not all tension and not all stress is harmful.
There is an amount of tension that is good for us.
In fact, some of us do better under pressure.
When a violinist is getting the violin ready to play, he tightens the violin strings.
The process sounds terrible.
But when they have the right tension (not too much, not too little) those strings begin to
produce beautiful music.
That's the way it is in our lives also.
We need just the right amount of tension to make things harmonize.
In Psalm 37 the first three words grab our attention: " Do not fret."
That word, " fret," means to "eat away or to gnaw away or to wear away".
Negative stress will always erode our lives.
The best way to define negative anxiety and stress is to use a car as an example.
Suppose you go out and turn on the engine of your car.
Instead of putting the gear into drive, you keep it in P (Park) or N (Neutral).
You press the accelerator to the floor, release it, trounce on it, release it, and trounce on it again.
The engine roars and fades.
The engine races, grows hot, overheats and begins to smoke.
You generate a lot of noise and smoke, but you go nowhere.
In fact, you accomplished nothing more than ruining a perfectly good engine.
The human body works in a similar way.
If you rev up your heart and nerves and brain waves with constant worry, stress and anxiety,
you'll go nowhere and you will ruin a perfectly good body.
Charlie Brown can be quite a theologian at times.
Linus was dragging his blanket one day and said, " Charlie Brown, you look kind of depressed."
Charlie Brown replied, " I don't worry about school a lot."
Then, he paused and said, " I worry about my worrying about school.
Even my anxieties have anxieties."
Psalm 37 tells us of some things we can do that will help us.
Here are some of those suggestions.
"And Commit your way unto the Lord."
When the psalmist says, " commit," he is speaking of revealing.
Often, we want to take this passage of Scripture and twist it a little bit and and say that
" commit" means to give.
It doesn't mean that here.
It means to reveal.
He is saying something like this, " Reveal to God your problems and your tensions."
He is asking for an openness, a transparency, and honesty.
He says, " Reveal your weaknesses. Come out with it."
Now, that is not easy for us to do.
The natural tendency when we are under pressure is to hide it.
We are taught to grin and bear it.
Boys and men, especially, are taught to be tough -- endure, survive, and never cry.
Because of this, we take the stress we're under and cover it up, put a false smile on our face,
and push out our chest and act macho.
We laugh at the idea that we may need some help.
Us? Weak? Never!
That's the natural tendency.
Cover it and bear it.
The world says, when you're under pressure and tension bear it (or drug it).
But God says, " Deal with it."
Sometimes, the world will suggest that you " find yourself."
Get therapy and counseling.
Now therapy and counseling have a valid place in the life of a Christian.
But God's Word goes much further.
Not only should we review our problems, but we should also reveal them.
Get it out!
Don't just continually fuss, do something with it.
The world would say carry it, carry those pressures.
But the Word of God says, " commit it."
Develop a revealing heart toward God and lay out to Him what your pressures really are.
He really does care.
Oswald Chambers has said, " All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God."
Trust in Him and He will do it.
Let us look at this word, " trust."
If commit means to reveal, trust means to release.
The indication of trust is the willingness to give something that you hold very special to someone else.
When you have a friend with whom you have a trusted relationship then you have a friend
you believe in so much that you can trust him with anything.
This is where the commitment comes in, and where giving comes in.
We can paraphrase the last part of verse 5 to read, " God will accomplish all that you release to Him."
In other words, if you don't release it, He can't relieve it.
" Leave It There!"
If the world from you withhold of its silver and its gold,
And you have to get along with meager fare,
Just remember, in His Word, how He feeds the little bird;
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.
Refrain:
Leave it there, leave it there,
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.
If you trust and never doubt, He will surely bring you out.
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.
If your body suffers pain and your health you can't regain,
And your soul is almost sinking in despair,
Jesus knows the pain you feel, He can save and He can heal;
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.
When your enemies assail and your heart begins to fail,
Don't forget that God in Heaven answers prayer;
He will make a way for you and will lead you safely through.
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.
When your youthful days are gone and old age is stealing on,
And your body bends beneath the weight of care;
He will never leave you then, He'll go with you to the end.
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.
-- Copied
Our problem is not a God who cannot relieve our tensions and pressures.
Our problem is being a people unable to release ourselves to Him.
Our tendency is to give in to Him at a moment of extreme frustration and helplessness,
only to pick everything up again when we are " feeling better," or are " getting on top of things."
We think we've got everything under control.
Isn't that a joke?
I've never had a day in my life in which I've had everything under control.
Doesn't God have a fabulous sense of humor?
Whenever I think I've got it all under control, God brings one more dimension into my life.
The moment we think we're strong, God shows us that we are really weak.
The moment we think we have all the answers, then we discover that God has some of the best questions?
For me to trust is for me to get to the point where I learn to release.
You come to me with your problems and pressures and I may say?
I say, " Give them to God!"
And I can sound very pious as I do so.
Sure, I can say that. Why not?
The problems aren't mine.
I'm like the general who told his troops, " I'm behind you all the way, men,"
and then whispered to his aide, " Make sure that I'm way behind them."
This trusting is each of us dealing with our own pressures, and giving them to God.
Too many times were like the man who prayed, " Lord, I will give you my family."
Nothing happened.
More desperately, he prayed, " Lord, I'll give you my business."
Nothing happened.
Finally, in total desperation, he said, " Lord, I will give you myself."
Then, something happened!
Turn things over to Him,
He said, " commit," which means "to reveal your pressure."
He said, " trust," which means to "release" them.
And he said more.
" Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart."
Commit means to reveal.
Trust means to release.
Delight means to rejoice.
Rejoice?
Get happy!
You may be saying, " Wait a minute. Now you have gone off the deep end.
The subject is pressure, stress and problems.
And now you are trying to tell us to get happy."
Do me a favor.
Underline two words in that verse in your Bible: " delight" and " desires."
It's very important to know those two words.
It's important to understand their order also.
The sequences of those two words make all the difference between a religion of selfishness
and a religion of love.
Now look at this.
This verse does not say, " The Lord will give you what your heart desires; therefore, delight in Him."
It does not say, " Tell the Lord what you want, and He will give it to you."
This verse does not try to portray God as a Santa Claus.
Delight is an act of the will.
Emotions are only the result of your choosing to " delight."
The psalmist said that if you want to start delighting in God, you should put your delight
where it should be; if you put your love and affection on that level, then God will begin to do
a work in your life, and regardless of where you are, you will be able to rejoice!
That's why Paul is able to say in Romans 8: 38: "
I have become absolutely convinced that neither death nor life, neither a messenger of heaven,
nor a monarch of earth, neither what happens today nor what may happen tomorrow,
neither a power from on high nor a power from below, nor anything else in God's whole world
has any power to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
(Phillips translation)
Paul demonstrated that it is our commitment, not our circumstance that gives us joy.
I have known some of the happiest people who had the worst situations.
And I have known some of the unhappiest people who are in absolutely super situations.
People are always saying, " If I only had ...…" or " If we could only get ... …" or " If I could just be given ...…"
We yearn for what others have rather than rejoice in our own blessings.
Paul wrote a special letter to the church at Philippi.
"And rejoice in the Lord!" He told the Philippians.
Paul was not writing from a luxury hotel.
He was writing from prison.
Here was a man in chains in the dungeon writing to people who were walking around in the sunlight
without chains, " Hey, rejoice!"
Isn't it amazing?
" If I could just have this or that in life, I could be happy."
But if you are unhappy where you are, you will be unhappy anywhere.
If you're unhappy married, you are probably going to be unhappy single.
If you're unhappy single, you are probably not to be unhappy married.
If you're unhappy when you are poor, you're probably going to be unhappy when you are rich.
And, if you're unhappy when rich, you will certainly be unhappy poor.
The psalmist in Psalm 37 is trying to teach us something about stress.
He is saying it isn't your problem that brings you stress.
It is your perspective of that problem.
It is how you look at your problems.
" Two men stood behind prison bars.
One saw the mud; the other saw the stars."
That's exactly what God is trying to teach us in Psalm 37 when he tells us,
" I'll show you how to cope with stress."
Just fall head over heels in love with God until your first thought in the morning is:
" This is the day that the Lord hath made!
I will rejoice and be glad in it."
Then, as you go through the routine, mundane things, and average activities of life,
there will be a peace -- not that you have had a good day or a bad day or because it was Monday
or Sunday, but because all day your affection and heart have been set upon God
who is above all else -- the God who loves and cares for you.
That's the difference!
Delight in Him.
Rest in the Lord.
Commit means reveal.
Trust means release.
Delight means rejoice.
Rest means readiness.
We are not talking about a rest from action.
We're talking about a rest from friction.
There is a lot of difference between resting for the Lord and rusting in the Lord.
The philosopher, Kierkegaard, told the story of a beautiful drake who grew bored flying south
with the other ducks each fall.
So on one trip, he landed in a barnyard and joined a group of mixed birds and ducks
and spent the winter sharing their corn and their haylofts.
When the spring came and the wild ducks blew northward again, the beautiful drake tried
to rejoin his friends.
His wings were weak and his stomach was fat.
He could fly no higher than the roof of the barn.
By choosing earthbound security, he forfeited his ability to soar.
Sometimes, Christians are like that unwise duck.
They misunderstand the real meaning of resting in the Lord.
It does not mean being content and lazy.
It does mean having confidence in God's strength and being ready to respond to His every call.
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
Commit means reveal.
Trust means release.
Delight means rejoice.
Rest means readiness.
Dwell means remain.
Remain!
Stay right there!
The psalmist had said commit, reveal; trust, delight, rest, or get into a state of readiness
for what God wants you to do in the process of the pressure, but also dwell.
Stay right where you are!
The human tendency when we are under pressure is to panic -- to run.
Removal is the first thing that comes to mind, but God says, " Remain."
We must stay where we are in order for faithfulness to develop.
Stick it out!
That's what it means.
Here is a paraphrase: " Remain where you are and see the faithfulness of God."
In short, " Don't just do something; stand there."
Let God do His work.
God is going to get a lot more blessing from Daniel while he is in the lions' den
than when he is removed from it.
God is going to get a greater blessing out of the Hebrew children in the fire
than after they are removed from it.
The great thing about Christian living is found in Psalm 66: 12 where there is a wonderful truth
about stress and pressure.
" We went through fire, and through water; yet Thou didst bring us out into a place of abundance."
The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian in this area of stress is this:
The non-Christian doesn't go through the water; he drowns in it.
The non-Christian is consumed by the fire, but the Christian goes through it.
" Through it all, through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus.
I've learned to trust in God."
Have you learned that to do that when it comes to stress?
There is an old hymn that I love:
" Some through the waters, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the blood;
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song
In the night season and all the day long."
With the song God gives, we can handle the day-to-day stresses of life.
Sermon adapted.