Stress – A Biblical Perspective (part five)
This is part 5 of a 5 part series. This series was written for my friends in the cardiac-rehab program at Valley Regional Hospital.
The Principle of Submission
Is God in control of your life? Are you submissive and in obedience to God all the time? Do you know God’s commandments? Do you always obey God’s commandments? If your answer is “no” to any of these questions, then you are not obeying God which is the same as not being submissive to God. Rebellion is the opposite of obedience and submission.
Jesus Christ said the greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. If this is the greatest commandment, then the greatest sin is to break this command. Do we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength? When we do, we spend every waking moment seeking to please God because we love Him so much. I never met anyone who can honestly say they never broke this commandment. Nor is it likely we will meet someone who kept the second commandment Jesus talked about which is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Do you make sure your neighbors, people in your proximity, have all their needs met as much as you make sure your own needs are met? I know I have not. This is a lack of obedience to God’s commands.
If being in rebellion to God, the ultimate Judge of the living and the dead, doesn’t cause stress in your life, then you are not thinking clearly. Nobody in their right mind openly defies a judge in a position to determine whether or not a person deserves life imprisonment. In a greater way, it is not a good thing to rebel against the Creator of the Universe, the Judge who decides our eternal fate. But, let’s not just look at this situation from a negative angle. Nobody in their right mind openly defies a loving benefactor, someone who cares for them dearly and desires to bestow good things upon them. Though this rebellion seems outlandishly foolish, people do it every day. The stark reality is the Bible says those opposed to God, those in rebellion, are His enemies. They are enemies to what is right and good.
Rebellion causes stress. The Bible teaches we can be helped from our rebellious nature by pursuing holiness and righteousness. Righteousness is a peaceable pursuit. It is being in right standing before God, with a clean slate, declared good by God. This brings indescribable peace to our soul. How do we obtain righteousness, a right standing before God? There is only one way.
The Bible says Jesus Christ, on the cross, willingly took our sins upon Himself. He then offers up His righteousness (His sinless position before the Judge) to all those who put their faith and trust in Him. They become justified, which is a theological word meaning, “just as if I’d” never sinned. The Apostle Paul summed it up like this, “God made Jesus Christ to be sin for us (on our account) so we might become righteous before God (in Jesus Christ). Theologians describe this as substitutionary atonement, which means Jesus Christ took the punishment for our sins. Putting faith in Christ’s work on the cross changes our position before God from an enemy to a forgiven child of God. This brings indescribable peace to the soul so a person can say, “death where is thy sting and grave, where is thy victory?”
Summing it all up
Our Heavenly Father loves us and cares for us. He provided instructive information so we can live healthy lives. God doesn’t want His children to be stressed. Heaven will not be a stressful place at all. God’s instructions are not burdensome, but actually the opposite, they provide freedom from oppression. In the Bible, God repeatedly emphasizes He has our very best in mind. Will you trust what God says and submit yourself to His ways and to His loving guidance? My prayer is you will.
-Allen Burns
Stress – A Biblical Perspective (part four)
This is part 4 of a 5 part series. This series was written for my friends in the cardiac-rehab program at Valley Regional Hospital.
The Principle of Prayer
Praying to God for help is similar to a child asking a parent for help. The child struggles and struggles while the parent watches patiently, aware of the struggle, waiting for the child to just ask. When the child asks, the parent complies and gladly lends a hand. Sometimes, the way the parent helps is not exactly what the child expected. A good loving parent will provide the help needed in the exact time. The help provided is not always what the child thinks is needed, but what the parent thinks is good and right.
Prayer is communicating with God. It is not informing God of our situation, because God is omniscient, (which means “all-knowing,” God already knows everything). Compared to the small child, we are infinitely more in need of God. Compared to the parent, God is infinitely more able to provide help because He is all-powerful and all-knowing which means He knows the perfect solution. When we pray to God we are verbally expressing our dependence upon God for our needs. Prayer is expressing what is so very true and an ever present reality, which is, we are completely dependent upon God. To not recognize our position of need is sinful negligence. This is why the Apostle Paul tells us to pray without ceasing; because we are in continual need of God’s help and God’s supply. We are totally dependent.
How then does praying help our stress? The Bible says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7). Supplication is a petition. In effect, we are to pray a petition of our needs to God, with thanksgiving. We do so with thankfulness because we know God is providing, and we are to be thankful for His provision. The result when we do this the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds; it will guard them from being anxious. What a wonderful result. People who are anxiety ridden can receive peace (I know of nobody who can be stressed-out and peaceful at the same time).
How is this? How can prayer provide peace to an anxious heart and mind? What if my prayers are not answered the way I want? When we pray, do we expect God to provide our list of requests, like a great big vending machine in the sky? The reason we experience peace is because we are casting our needs upon a God who is good, perfect, merciful, faithful, just, and loving. We can know God has our very best in mind always. It is taking a list of worries to a God who is fully capable, fully trustworthy, and fully knowing the best outcome at the best time. It is saying, “I really don’t know what to do about this, but I know You do. Can you please help? Thank you Heavenly Father! I knew I could count upon You for I know You love me and care for me.” After we pray, we are to continue living our life in humble obedience to God’s ways knowing God has everything under control.
Prayer is communicating with God and recognizing God is in control. However, if we do not surrender to God control of our life, if we are living in rebellion to God – God will not heed our prayers. The Bible says God does not regard the prayers of the rebellious. “Oh, but I am not rebellious,” you might respond. “I am a good person. I don’t steal, I don’t lie (most of the time) and I never murdered anybody. Of course God will heed my prayers.” If you think this way, read the next installment in this series.
-Allen Burns
Stress – A Biblical Perspective (part three)
This is part 3 of a 5 part series. This series was written for my friends in the cardiac-rehab program at Valley Regional Hospital.
The Principle of Self-denial
Closely related to the one-another principle is the principle of self-denial. Human beings are basically selfish. We spend our day seeking to satisfy our self. Some ways in which we satisfy ourselves are totally necessary for our survival. We need to satisfy our hunger and warmly clothe ourselves when we are cold. There are other ways we seek to satisfy ourselves which are not necessarily important. Seeing the football game on Sunday is not necessary. Being first in line to purchase the latest product release or to talk to the bank-teller or to get a burger at the fast-food chain are not necessary. Having expectations of giving a picture perfect, flawless weather, excellent reception, and beautiful ceremony for your daughter’s wedding may be placing an unnecessary high-expectation on being satisfied when just being happy your daughter found someone who will love and care for her may be enough.
We expect our satisfaction. When someone or something steps into our path and delays or prevents our satisfaction, we get all bent out of shape.
We want to get to work on time, but we keep getting red lights. Each red light increases our stress until the end of the commute, we are ready to explode. Deny your urgency, and replace it with patience. Leave earlier in the morning. Deny yourself the five minutes of alarm snoozing or the late show on television the night before.
It’s funny how we take a stressful job situation because we like the extra money and then we use the extra money to buy the extra nice car we stress about getting scratched. Do not lay up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves may break in and steal.
We spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about our reputation and our image. We are overly concerned with how others think about us and how they perceive our economic status, our social status, our intelligence, our clothing, our physical appearance, and so forth. We think a lot about pleasing ourselves and being happy. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Which of us by worrying can add any measure to our height? Why do we worry about clothing? God clothes the rest of nature, He will also clothe us.
How much of our stress is caused by worrying about the future? Why do we worry about things which haven’t even happened yet? The majority of the time, we find we worry about future events and when the day of the event arrives, we find out it wasn’t bad after all. Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient are the troubles of today.
Let’s look at this principle from another angle. What is our response to difficult situations? Let’s ask ourselves, “When I am stressed in a situation, when I am not being satisfied for some reason, what is it I want I am not getting?” What is this thing I want so badly I get angry, treat others unkindly, and I become a difficult person to be around? We get stressed out at people like the waitress, the guy in the other vehicle who just cut us off, or my family member who lost the remote to the television. If we can gain a proper perspective of life, we will not react negatively or let these events bother us. Instead, we will “roll with the punches” and not let the little things in life get under our skin. We need an eternal perspective, a big-picture view.
To deny ourselves, we put others first. We give others first place and don’t care so much if we are second or third. When we deny ourselves, we don’t seek too hard with an unhealthy ambition for life’s creature comforts and instead become content with what we are given. When we deny ourselves, we don’t get angry and say, “I deserve better treatment than this, after all, I’m the customer.” Instead, we patiently wait for the person behind the sales counter to fix their error, and we smile and thank them because we know we also made a few mistakes along the way.
-Allen Burns