55. OVERCOMING STRESS, God’s Way. John 8.25.

Jesus was constantly under pressure, there were gruelling demands on His time. He rarely had personal privacy and He was constantly interrupted. People repeatedly misunderstood, criticised and ridiculed Him. He was under enormous stress, yet He remained at peace under pressure. How did He do it? He based His life on eight sound principles of “Stress Management.” So I am going to see what we can learn from them. 1. Knowing who you are: “Who are you?” The Pharisees demanded and Jesus replied “The one I have always claimed to be.”(John.8.25) If you don’t know who you are, you will subconsciously let other people pressure you into believing you are somebody you are not. A lot of stress comes from us hiding behind masks, living double lives, being unreal with others and trying to be someone we are not. Insecurity always produces pressure; when we are insecure we feel coerced into performing and conforming. We set ourselves unrealistic standards and even though we work hard, we are unable to meet them. So what should you do? you must know who you are and WHOSE you are! A Redeemed Child of God, put on this earth not by accident but for a purpose. You are deeply loved and fully accepted by God. He has a plan for your life, Therefore you are significant. To overcome stress you must know who you are and until you deal decisively with this issue you’ll be plagued by it. 2. Who are you trying to please?… Think seriously about this. Jesus didn’t try to please anybody, so isn’t it foolish for you or me to try to do something even God doesn’t do? It was a settled issue with Jesus; I’m going to please God. full stop! And God replied, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3.17.)When we lose sight of who we are trying to please we’ll always cave in to these three (Cs,) Criticism, Competition, and Conflict. Criticism, because you are overly concerned about what others think of you. Competition, because you are afraid somebody will get ahead of you and Conflict, because you are threatened by anyone who disagrees with you. Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom and His righteousness and all these things (overcoming the stress of criticism, competition and conflict) shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6.33) By focussing on God’s will our lives are simplified and we can be sure we are always doing the right thing and pleasing God regardless of anybody else’s opinion. We love to blame stress on other people, or our obligations; with words like...You made me do..I just have to...I’ve got to do.. Actually there are few things in our lives apart from our jobs that we must do. So what we’re really saying is “I choose to do this or that, because I don’t want to handle the consequences.” Rarely does anybody make us do anything, so we can’t blame other people for our stress. When we feel pressured, we are choosing to let others put us there. The fact is we are not victims unless we allow ourselves to be pressured by outside demands. 3. know what you want to accomplish:-- In John 8:14 Jesus said, “I know where I came from and where I am going.” Can you say that too? Unless you plan your life and establish priorities, you will be pressured by other people to do what they think is important. Every day we live by priorities OR we live by pressure. There is no other option. Either you decide what is important in life or other people decide that for you. It’s easy to operate under the tyranny of the urgent, to come to the end of your day and wonder, “Have I accomplished anything at all today? I’ve used up a lot of energy and did a lot of things, but did I achieve anything important?” Business is not necessarily productivity. You may be spinning in circles but not actually achieving anything of real value. Preparation causes us to be at ease. Or to put it another way, preparation prevents pressure, whereas procrastination produces pressure. Good organisation and preparation reduce stress, because you know who you are,who you are trying to please, and what you want to accomplish. Having clearly defined goals simplifies our lives. So spend a few minutes at the start of each day talking with God in prayer. Then look at your schedule for the day and decide; “Is this really how I want to spend a day of my life? Am I willing to spend the next twenty-four hours on these activities?” The right answer to those two questions will lower your stress level by helping you to prioritise. 4. Jesus was determined, persistent and focused. Focus on one thing at a time. (Luke 4:43:-- Are you being pulled in different directions? People were constantly trying to do this to Jesus and distract Him from His goal. The Bible says in the above verse, “When He was about to leave, the people tried to keep Him with them. But His Father had sent Him on a particular mission,, so in essence He responded, “No I must keep moving towards my goal.” Jesus wasn’t going to be distracted by less important matters. In fact He was a master at this, everyone tried to interrupt Him, yes, everyone had a plan B for Jesus but He remained determined on the mission His Father had given Him. Saying “I must keep moving towards my goal.” So when you have a dozen different things to do, pick the most important one and stick with it until it’s complete, then pick the next most important one and follow through until you have completed the list. When we defuse our efforts we’re ineffective, but when we concentrate our efforts we’re more successful, defused light produces a hazy glow, but light that’s concentrated produces fire. Jesus didn’t let interruptions prevent Him from concentrating on His Goal. He didn’t let others make Him tense, irritated or stressed, and He is our example. 5. Don’t try to do it all yourself;--Mark 3:14 says “He appointed twelve… that He might send them out. One of the reasons we get stressed-out is because we think that everything depends on us. Not Jesus. He enlisted, trained and empowered twelve others so they could share the load. He delegated and got other people involved. So why don’t we do that? Two reasons. A. Perfectionism. We think if I want this job well done, I’d better do it myself. That’s a nice idea, but often it doesn’t work well because there are just too many things to be done. We simply don’t haver the time or talent to do everything ourselves. It’s really an egotistical attitude that says, “Nobody, but nobody can do it the way I can.” Do you think Jesus could have done a better job than the disciples? Of course! but even knowing that, He still let them do the work. Why? Because we need to let other people make mistakes in order for them to learn, the same way the disciples learned, don’t rob others of an education. B.. insecurity. “What if I turn this responsibility over to someone and they do a better job than me. That could be a threat to many of us. But if you know who you are, who you’re trying to please what you want to accomplish and focus on that, there wont be a threat. In order to be effective, you must get other people involved, because we can’t focus on more than one thing at a time and do it well. 6. Make prayer your daily habit;--- In Mark 1:35. we read:-Jesus woke early in the morning and prayed. He began His day with prayer, and as busy as He was, He kept in contact with His Father throughout each day. Now if Jesus felt the need to do that, how much more should we do it. Prayer is the greatest stress reliever, some people call it “Taking Five” So instead of going out for a “smoke or Drink”, Take five with Jesus and see the difference. Time alone with God can be a decompression chamber for stresses. We can talk to God, tell Him what is on our minds and allow Him to show us something in His Word. Then, Praise and Thank Him and go back to your schedule and re-evaluate your priorities. Many of our stresses come from our inability to sit still, we just don’t know how to be quiet. In Psalm 46:10 God says “Be still and know that I am God” One of the reasons we don’t know God better or more personally is because we can’t be still. We are too busy to be quiet and just think. Someone once said “It seems to be an ironic habit of man that when he looses his way he doubles his speed. There was a pilot flying over the Pacific during World War11 who lost his bearings, after radioing in, the controller asked for his location, he replied “I don’t know, but I’m making record time.!!”A lot of us are like that, speeding through life without knowing where we are headed. After starting our day with prayer, we need to stop a few times during it, to recharge our batteries. 7. Take time out to enjoy life:--- (Mark 6;31.) Jesus did this. Because so many people were coming and going, they didn’t even get a chance to eat. He said ”Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest,”Jesus not only took time for relaxation and recreation, He told those who had been working hard to take a deserved break. So they got into a boat, rowed to the other side of the lake and went out into the desert. Jesus was able to handle stress, because He knew when to relax. Rest and relaxation in life are not optional or unspiritual, in fact they are so unimportant, that God included them in the Ten Commandments. The Sabbath was made for man, because God knows our physical, emotional and constitutional demands need to be met by regular periodic brakes. Jesus survived life because He enjoyed life. See (Matthew 11-19.) “paraphrased” “The Son of Man came enjoying life” and Paul tells us in (1.Timothy 6.17) That God has provided richly everything for our enjoyment. Balance is the key to stress management. 8. To-day if you feel burned out check two things;-- 1. Are you drawing daily on God’s Grace, or are you depending on yourself? 2. Do you regularly set aside time for rest and recreation? The word recreation means restore, refresh or create anew. If you burn out, what use will you be to God’s Kingdom, Your family or yourself. If the load you are carrying is too heavy for you, it didn’t come from God. Either you have taken it on, or others have given it to you. “If you are tired of carrying heavy burdens I will give you rest. Take my yoke, put it on your shoulders and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble, then you will find rest. For my yoke is easy and light”. The final stress management principal Jesus taught us is;--Give your stress to Him. You’ll never enjoy complete peace of mind until you develop a relationship with the Prince of Peace. Note, Jesus didn’t say come to me and I’ll give you more guilt, more burdens, more stress and more worries, No Jesus says “Come to me and I will give you rest” I’m the stress reliever! “When you get in harmony with me,I’ll give you inner strength.” Only Jesus can reform your lifestyle from stressful to satisfied. The greatest source of stress comes from trying to live our lives apart from the God who made us, trying to go our own way and be our own god.. What do you need? If you’ve never committed your life to Christ, you need a transformation. Give Him your life and all its’ stresses and say Lord please give me a New Life. Replace the pressure I feel with the peace you offer and help me to follow your principles of Stress Management. Thank you for taking the time to read about “Handling Stress God’s Way”, I believe it’s the only way that really works. May Our God richly bless us all. Phaline. Reference;-Bibles N.I.V. & N.J.K.V. Inspiration:- Archival copies of “The Word For Today” by Bob & Debby Gass, Calvary Bridge New Jersey U.S.A.