Help me I’m stressed!
When we are stressed out:
- My resistance is lower.
(Luke 21:34 NIV) “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.
- My emotions are inconsistent.
(Job 9:25 NIV) “My days are swifter than a runner; they fly away without a glimpse of joy.
- My productivity suffers.
(Proverbs 21:5 MSG) Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run; hurry and scurry puts you further behind.
(Proverbs 19:2b GW) …A person in a hurry makes mistakes.
- My life loses meaning.
(Psalms 39:6a NLT) We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.
- My relationship with God seems distant.
(Psalms 46:10a NIV) He says, “Be still, and know that I am God…
(Ecclesiastes 4:6 GNB) …it is better to have only a little, with peace of mind, than be busy all the time with both hands, trying to catch the wind.
The distance between the truth I know and the truth I live equals the pain I experience.
What will I do?
Keep the Sabbath Day holy!
(Hebrews 4:9-11 NIV) There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest…
- I will rest my body.
(Psalms 127:2 NIV) In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat–for he grants sleep to those he loves.
- I will replenish my soul.
- With quietness.
(Psalms 23:2-3 NIV) He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.
- With enjoyment.
(Proverbs 17:22 NIV) A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
- With people.
(Hebrews 10:25 NIV) Let us not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
- I will refocus my spirit.
(Psalms 92:1-2, 10, 12, 14 NLT) A psalm. A song to be sung on the Sabbath Day. It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to the Most High. It is good to proclaim Your unfailing love in the morning, Your faithfulness in the evening. But You have made me as strong as a wild ox. You have anointed me with the finest oil. But the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green.