Is Stress UnGodly?

How often do you say “I am stressed”? How often do you hear others say it? It seems to me to be a word that is used very frequently. I have heard all the sayings that Christians use like “I am too blessed to be stressed.” I like this saying and it helps sometimes to look at all the blessings in my life and to acknowledge that what I am dealing with at the moment is really not worth stressing over. But I think we assume that if we are stressed that we are somehow not Godly. I think it is common to assume that if someone is stressed that they are not trusting God, But is that really true? Now I admit that as we get closer to our Lord Jesus Christ and become more like Him our level of trust in Him should increase. But is it really fair to say that if we trust Him, We won’t worry about the circumstances of life? And is it fair to say that if we worry that we do not trust Him? It is easy to start to analyze our less than perfect behaviors and it is reasonable that we would be disappointed in our lack of trust in God, but we should not focus very long on defining things like stress and assuming that we just need to have more faith. Yes, more faith is always good, it should be the pursuit of our lives, but our focus should be on all that God has done, we need to remember what He has done, We need to remind each other of what He has done and as it says in

Deuteronomy 11:18-20
18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates,

We also must remember what God says.

Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

And finally we need to know who we are and how God has made us. We must learn what types of things cause us stress. Some may feel stress when others are expecting too much of them, some will feel it when finances are low, some will feel it when there are too many things to do or remember, and some like myself will not stress about any of those things, but will find themselves feeling great pressure because of relationships.

God showed me something today, I do not worry or stress about very many things, except relationships. My most stressful times are when I have done everything I know how to do to build up a relationship and for some reason; the relationship still is in jeopardy. I become stressed when some of the couples I meet with don’t seem to hear the simple solutions from Gods word. When they come to see me and I pour my heart out trying to help them and they go back and repeat all the same behaviors. I have been known to be up late in the evening worrying about a couple who have been struggling. My stress sometimes comes in the form of wondering how I can get through to them. And sometimes it comes in the form of what could I have said differently to help them. I always end, by acknowledging that it is only my job to tell the story of how God made us and instituted marriage, much of what you will read in my earlier writings and my writings to come, focuses on this very thing.

If you are reading this you might think I should stop meeting with couples to help them in their marriages because it causes me to stress. But, that would be like asking me to stop breathing. I LOVE helping them. Helping couples does not cause me stress. The stress comes when they do not want to be helped or think it is too late. I don’t want to give up on them even if they have. I know God has not given up on them, and that is my struggle, I believe that there is some level of stress or burden or pressure that I feel that is God given, it is my driving force. We all need to find that fine line, without loosing the drive and passion, we need to hear from God, when we have done enough.

This tendency of mine also carries over to my relationships. If there is someone that I am having difficulty getting along with, it will bother me late into the evening. The most stress comes when I have done all I can possibly do before the Lord to salvage the relationship and the other person is not responsive or is unwilling to put forth the same effort.

So after bearing my soul to you and sharing my weaknesses with you, I ask you to take my challenge to do the same and define what areas of your life cause you the most amount of stress, The first step to stressing less is to know your weakest point in your armor. Ask for help from a friend or spouse. And I will try not to stress if you ignore my challenge.

Stress is usually considered a bad thing, but there are some types of pressure that could be defined as stress that motivate us, so in closing I suppose you could define stress in such a way that it would be wrong, but if you do so you will need to stop using the word so much, because stress, pressure, drive and passion are simular and can be the very elements that cause us to make a difference and help others. Don’t think too hard about it. Just keep using your talents and checking in with God regularly to see if He is saying keep going or wait, rest a little, let me show you a miracle or two that have nothing to do with you.

Read with Me!