Friday, November 09, 2007

The Stress Factor

We hear it all the time, "I'm under a huge amount of stress!" What is the origin of this stress? What will be the results? The Bible can give us some helpful answers.

Jesus said, "Be on guard, that your heart may not be weighted down with ... the worries of life" (Luke 21:34). Now the human heart involves the mind and emotions which, in turn, affect our physical well-being. Jesus knew we can put all sorts of stress on our minds and emotions and bodies! We can do it with worry, anxiety, and fear! We worry about tomorrow! We worry over children! We are anxious about bills! Worry, worry, worry! It's self inflicted stress and it is sin!
Listen again to Jesus, "Do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will take care of itself" (Matthew 6:34). Why does Jesus exhort us to avoid this self imposed stress? Simple! It can break us!

Even so, we human beings are skilled at imposing stress upon ourselves. For example, God gave us twenty-four hour days! We regularly try to stuff more into a day than the hours will permit.
Then we worry ourselves sick over the work that has not been done. We need to learn to recognize this self imposed stress. We need to learn to back off. We need to learn to say, 'No!'

No comments: