When you’re under stress, your blood pressure rises, pulse quickens, and adrenalin shoots through your body. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. If you’re about to get hit by a truck, your stress response says, “Get out of the way!” That’s good. But when stress becomes chronic, your body never shuts down. Studies show chronic stress is damaging to your brain and deadly to your body. It can kill you.
Chronic stress put me in the hospital. At my last church, we went from one service & Bible study hour, to two services, then three services & two Bible study hours, with me also preaching a Sunday night service & teaching a Wednesday night study. We did four back-to-back building campaigns. Most preachers say it’s hard to survive one building campaign, much less four back-to-back. The problem, though, was I only THOUGHT I was surviving.
One Sunday, while preaching the 8:30 AM service, I fainted. An ambulance took me to the hospital, where I spent 3 days & nights in ICU. They ran tests and found nothing. Then the doctor asked about my schedule. When I described my typical work week, which often was with no day off, much less time for vacation, he diagnosed that I had been living under chronic stress and had suffered a physical breakdown. My body had said, “No more!” He said I had to change things where I was or change where I was. Did you notice I said this happened in my LAST church? God taught me some valuable lessons that and I want to pass along to you today.
Sadly, due to the way of our world today, battling chronic stress is more common. We live in a stressful world. But God can take us from being stressed to being blessed and lead us to better physical health.
“A heart at peace gives life to the body.” - Proverbs 14:30 (NIV)
Today, we’re going to look to Psalm 23 to discover principles for lowering stress and living a healthier life. (READ TEXT)
1. I need to rely on God - v. 1
Not looking to people or things to meet our needs as opposed to God - will cause our stress to go down dramatically. You can lose your job, health, reputation, spouse, or mind; but you can’t lose your relationship with Christ. Trust God to meet your needs.
“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.” - Isaiah 30:15 (NIV)
2. I need to rest my body - v. 2
So much of stress in life comes from always being in a hurry. So what do you do? You look to God to meet your needs and then you obey God’s instruction about rest. Verse 2 says, “He MAKES me lie down.”
This idea of rest is so important God put it in the Ten Commandments. Right up there with don’t commit adultery, or murder, or lie. He says every seventh day you take a day off. Paul said what was a regimented day of rest on Saturday for the Jews was a shadow of what was to come (Colossians 2:17). So don’t get hung up on making Saturday your day of rest. What’s important is the principle of Sabbath, that you take off at least one day for every seven. To be your best requires some rest.
“Sometimes, the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap.” - John Ortberg
A man told his pastor, “Pastor, I tried reach you all day Friday.” The pastor said, “Sorry, that’s my day off.” The man said, “The devil never takes a day off.” The pastor said, “Yeah, and if I didn’t, I’d be as mean as he is.”
3. I need to recharge my soul - v. 3a
A big factor in my recovering from my “stress mess” was reading my Bible and spending time in prayer daily. You see, what we give
attention to will either raise or lower our stress. In the Transformed handbook are daily devotions. Make use of them the next few weeks and see how time in God’s Word and in prayer will lower your stress.
4. I need to respond to God’s guidance - v. 3b
God always tells the truth and His timing is always perfect. So don’t be afraid to respond to that which He is telling you to do today.
A good example is Charlie & Martha Crane’s move to Clinton, Mississippi. They moved into a house needing some work. But when they arrived, Charlie found himself in need of a liver and kidney transplant. He couldn’t do anything.
But two men Charlie had hired to help with our church remodel now lived an hour away and helped with the work needed on the house. When Charlie obeyed God’s leading and hired them, he had no clue he’d need that friendship years later. But God knew, and God knows what you will need tomorrow. So trust Him today and follow His lead.
5. I need to resolve to trust God - v. 4
David says, “I’m not going to stress out because God is my protector; God is helping me. I’m going to trust God, even in the dark valley.” Now, shadows can be scary. Remember how, as a little kid, you used to be afraid of shadows? Well, consider these thoughts about shadows.
A. Shadows can’t hurt you. A truck can run over you but if a truck’s shadow runs over you it doesn’t hurt.
B. Shadows are always bigger than their source. Shadows are always bigger than the source and makes them look bigger than they really are. But here’s the good news.
C. Where there’s a shadow there’s a light. You can’t have a shadow without light. So the key when you’re going through the valley of the shadow is to turn your back on the shadow and look to the light.
Because as long as I keep my eyes on the light the shadow can’t scare me. And Jesus is the light of the world. That’s how you go through the valley of the shadow of death. That’s how you lower the stress. I resolve to trust God in the dark valleys.
6. I need to react to attacks by giving them to God - v. 5
A common source of stress is conflict with other people. Attacks. They may come from people at work or even members of your own family. It’s been said that “little people belittle people; but great people make people feel great.” You and I should want to be great people, not little people. So we need to ask, “How do I handle mean people?” David gives us the answer here: You let God handle them.
David knew what it meant to be attacked. Though he was anointed to be the next king of Israel, he spent the better part of his life running from the first king of Israel, Saul, who wanted to kill him. He hid in caves and was maligned, demeaned and criticized. Yet he never said a bad word against the king. He wouldn’t retaliate. He trusted God. And God prepared him to be the king after God’s own heart. When it all was said and done, God vindicated him.
Now, when someone attacks you, everything in you wants to retaliate. It takes faith to trust, and let God be your defender. But if you will trust in God to fight your battles, He will vindicate you.
“So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.” - 1 Peter 4:19 (NLT)
7. I need to rejoice in God’s faithfulness - v. 6
When a shepherd had a flock of sheep he usually had a couple of sheep dogs. He’s leading from the front and the sheep dogs are at the back keeping the sheep in line. God’s goodness and love are like those sheep dogs in your life. As you rejoice in God’s goodness toward you and love for you, you can be helped to “stay in line” as you follow the Lord and not get distracted by worry concerning the future.
Do you look at your future by asking, “What if everything goes wrong? What if I don’t have enough money? What if I lose my job? What if?” Or do you look at your future and say, “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life. And I’ll dwell in the house of the Lord forever?” Those are your options. How do you lower the stress? Daily rejoice in God’s faithfulness to work for my good; love me unconditionally; & finish the work He has started in me.
Conclusion:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” - Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
Our church once sponsored a women’s conference, and the shirt they gave to the ladies had this verse, and a picture of an egg on it. But that is not what Jesus was referring to. A yoke is actually a board that has two arches in it that you put over two cattle so they can pull together. The value of a yoke is that it halves the load.
When two cows were yoked together, they would move in the same direction and at the same speed. Those are the two problems that we have that cause us to be stressed, rather than blessed. We’re moving through life going in the wrong direction and going at the wrong speed.
But when your yoked with Christ you will go in the right direction and at the speed that you can handle. When you’re yoked to Christ you’re not going to go off in a ditch because He’s going to keep you on the right path. And when you’re yoked to Christ you’re not going to run too fast and burn yourself out. Because you’re yoked to Christ.
Jesus says, “come,” “take,” & “learn.” Some need to come to Christ today. Others need to take His offer - to let Him shoulder your burden. Others need to commit to learning from Him. As you take whatever step right for you, you can move from “stressed” to “blessed.”
