We live in a very stressful time. Covid, Civil Unrest, Joblessness, Homelessness, Open Hatred being shown for everything small and big. Crime is at an all-time high, Sexual crime is everywhere in our society. These are just some of the stressful things  going on around us.

What about the stress in our personal lives? Family divisions, drugs and alcohol, not enough money to buy food, pay rent, buy needed medicines. Uncertainty, pain, anger, emotional turmoil, I could go on and on.

For Christians we have to remember who we are, and whose we are, to help us deal with the Stress of Life. God does not tell us we will not go through the sorrows of life, but he does tell us he will help us make it through. Check out his promise in this scripture.

He reminds us of 4 things.

1. Who HE IS:    

To whom will you compare me?
    Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
²⁶ Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
    Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
    and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
    not one of them is missing.

Our Father is the creator of all things. He tells you to go outside and LOOK UP, remember who I am. Remember the wonder of the creation and the power that he possesses. The order which this world runs. REMEMBER I am still here. In Jesus we are connected to this power, and we are the children of GOD.

2. I know How You Feel

Why do you complain, Jacob?
    Why do you say, Israel?
“My way is hidden from the Lord.
    my cause is disregarded by my God”?

Our father knows that we are stressed, that we have problems, that we feel abandoned. He also knows that we cry out to him in our hearts and that we think he does not care. That he is not listening, that he is not helping us. He said the same to Israel that he says to us today.

I am here, I do know, but my timing is not your timing. My way is not your way. I have a plan that you cannot see, Don’t put me in a box that says I have to fix it right now, He is our Father and he knows what is best for us, and sometimes our feelings tell us we have to have it now. But sometimes other things are happening in us and around us that have to go through to get us into the place God wants us to be.

3. He Has Prepared you, did you listen?

²⁸ Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.

You attend Church, You go to bible study, The teachers and Preachers have given you the word of God, to give you the strength to understand trials in your life. To teach you who you are in Christ. The power of your salvation and the resurrection of Jesus. Did you not hear, did you not listen. Did you not understand that he Loves you, cares for you. So when the trials of life come why do you run away from God instead of to God. Why do you forget the training he has give you to prepare you just for times like this. He has not abandoned you, he has worked to prepare you to know what to do during times of stress.

4. Give your Stress to Me, and continue to Trust and Serve me.

The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.
²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

Even though you go through the stress of life, he tells you to give your problems to him, trust in him, worry not, he will give you strength. You cannot rely on your own strength, you are not strong enough or able to change things you have no power over.  He wants you to hope in the Lord and you will be comforted, you will receive strength to go through. In his power you will soar as the eagles and not grow weary. You will walk with him and make it to the other side.

So Stress is just another form of worry. Why worry over things you do not have the power to change.

That does not mean you do not do whatever preparations you need to do. If you need a job, you have to keep looking for one, but do not worry about it. These are the things God wants you to know as you go through life.

1. He loves you and he is the almighty God

2. He wants you to trust him, He’s Got You

3. He knows how you feel and he understands

4. He is growing you in Christ

5. Run to him not away from him, continue your service, your growth, your love for him.

6. Listen to the Word that is given to you and grow strong in it.

7. Know that as you practice these things in your life, and renew your mind to see the world through God’s eyes and not the worlds that you will have a life of joy and peace in the midst of trials, and you will soar like Eagles and not grow weary or faint.

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