Dealing With The Mess Of Stress - Part 2

Last time we looked at the Source of Stress.

One night a guy takes his "first-date girlfriend" home. As she is about to go inside, the guy starts feeling a little macho. With an air of confidence, he leans with his hand against the wall and, smiling, he says to her:

"Sweet Thing, will you give me a goodnight kiss?"

Horrified, she replies "Are you mad? My parents will see us!"

Him: "Oh come on! Who's gonna see us at this hour?"

Her: "No, please. Can you imagine if we get caught?"

Him: "Oh come on! There's nobody around, they're all sleeping!"

Her: "No way. It's just too risky!"

Him: "Oh yes you can. Please?"

Her: "No, no. I just can't."

Him: "I beg you ... "

Out of the blue, the light on the stairs goes on, and the girl's sister shows up in her pajamas, hair all over the place, and in a sleepy voice she says: "Dad says to go ahead and kiss him. Otherwise I can do it. Or if need be, Dad says he will come down himself and do it. But for goodness sake tell him to take his hand off the intercom."

Let’s review:

What is stress?

The Scripture presents stress as the anxious or worried state of mind wherein one is concerned about something or someone. Last time we also learned that stress can be misdirected to become obsessions that reflect a distorted perspective of life. In the Bible, Jesus refers to the source of this kind of stress as worry, which we defined as wrong thinking, and wrong feeling about circumstances, people and things.

In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus tells us that worrying doesn’t accomplish anything

(Mat 6:25 NKJV) "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Stress is a load on the system that usually results from worry or anxiety.

“Worry” –the Greek word translated “anxious” in Philippians 4:6 means, “to be pulled in different directions.” We saw last time that there are people and circumstances in our lives that compete with each other for our attention and pull and stretch us in different directions. For example:

* You’ve got to work to support your family but your job keeps you away from your family”

* You want to have a closer walk with God but your spouse says you shouldn’t spend so much time in church away from your family”

What is stress? Stress is a load on the system that usually results from worry or anxiety and last time we learned that it manifests itself in many physical ways:

* General symptoms - Fatigue, aches and pains, crying spells, depression, anxiety attacks, sleep disturbance.

* Gastrointestinal Tract - Ulcer, cramps and diarrhea, colitis, irritable bowel.

* Glandular System - Thyroid gland malfunction.

* Cardiovascular - High blood pressure, heart attack, abnormal heart beat, stroke.

* Skin - Itchy skin rashes.

* Immune System - Decreased resistance to infections.

Finally, we saw last time that the key to dealing with stress is securing the mind against wrong thinking and wrong feelings about circumstances, people and things. Paul tells us in Philippians chapter four that the peace of God guards our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

We also learned that wrong thinking and wrong feelings come from three sources:

The World - We buy into the world’s way of thinking and feeling. We begin to rationalize in our minds, "Yeah, I do deserve a break today…" "That's right, I do want it my way."

The Flesh - Self says, "I want it; I deserve it; I must have it!" The stress comes as you seek to have your way with people, circumstances and things and don’t always get it.

Devil - The devil is the great deceiver. He can trick you into thinking wrong is right and right is wrong. He is the one who tempts you to doubt the love and concern of God. He is the one who tells, "Everyone's doing it" when in reality, everyone is not doing it. He is the one who uses fear as a weapon against you.

Wrong thinking and wrong feelings, which lead to stress, come from three sources, the world, your flesh and the devil. And just as there are three sources of bad thinking and feelings, there are three conditions that must be met in order for one to conquer worry and experience the secure mind: Right Praying, Right Thinking and Right Living.

This is where we left off last time. Today we will look at the first of the three conditions that must be met in order for one to conquer worry and experience the secure mind.