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.
Right Praying
(Phil 4:6 NKJV) Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
(Phil 4:7 NKJV) and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Paul writes, “Worry for nothing” or “Don’t worry about anything…” Remember, “worry”, the Greek word translated “anxious” in Philippians 4:6, means “to be pulled in different directions.” The Bible is telling the Christian, “Don’t be pulled in different directions by anything…”
This reminds me of a form of capital punishment called Draw and Quartering.
Draw and quartering was a form of execution carried out in England from the 13th century until about 1790. Those who were guilty of treason or being a runaway slave had each arm and leg tied to a horse. The horses were whipped to make them run off in four different directions. The person being drawn and quartered almost always died.
Today, you can find people who are being “drawn and quartered ’by stress associated with worry and anxiety.
* Maybe the stress associated with the time needed to provide for your family is pulling you away from spending time with them.
* Are you getting stressed out each and every time you get paid? Every pay period you have to “rob Peter so you can pay Paul.” Or are you stressed because you don’t have a job to pay your bills?
* Maybe you are being drawn and quartered by anxiety concerning a health problem that you must attend to but haven’t had the time or the money to see a doctor?
Maybe you are a student and each week you are being pulled apart by the loads of reading and studying and test-taking.
Keeping that old clunker of a car is costing you more money than you have to spend but you don’t have money to buy another and financing it is out of the question.
Relationships (or the lack of one) can pull you in all different directions as well. When it comes to relationships, the psychologists are saying that some of the concerns couples have are: (1) Will the relationship continue? (2) Does my partner like me or not? (3) Do I have a say? (4) Do I have my identity or freedom in the relationship? These kinds of concerns can pull you in all different directions.
So what do you do? What do you do when you are stressin’? The Bible tells us to pray.
(Phil 4:6 NKJV) Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
(Phil 4:7 NKJV) and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Here Paul is saying, “Don’t be pulled in different directions by anything…pray about everything…” In other words, we are being told that, “To conquer worry and experience the secure mind, you do so through right praying.
How does one pray right?
(Phil 4:6 NKJV) Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
(Phil 4:7 NKJV) and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
I want to share with you three ways to “pray right.” (1) Pray specifically; (2) pray completely; (3) pray with thanksgiving.
(1) Right Praying is praying specifically
“Everything” is the Greek word, pas, pas, and means: “any,” “every,” and “as many as.” This is telling us that when we pray, we need to pray specifically.
There are many in the church who for the purpose of this message we will call, “BE Prayer Warriors,” These are the people that might pray regularly, even fervently, but when they pray, they pray “BE” prayers or “Bless Everybody” prayers.
Someone might be thinking, “What is wrong with asking God to “bless everybody?””
I’ll answer your question with a question of my own, “What does the average person mean when he or she uses the word, blessed?” In what are called The Beatitudes, Jesus uses this word saying, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” or “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Here in Matthew chapter five the word, “blessed” is the Greek word, makarios, mak-ar'-ee-os; which means, “fortunate”, “well off” and “happy”.
With this in mind, perhaps when people pray, “Lord bless my mother; bless my father; Lord bless Aunt Martha and Uncle Joe” they are simply asking God to make their loved ones happy. But is that all they want from God?
When I pray for my wife and children, I don’t want God to merely make them happy and fortunate. I don’t pray “BE” prayers when it comes to my wife and children.
When I know that my wife has to spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week caring for my younger children and my oldest daughter who is handicapped, I don’t pray “Lord bless her” I pray, “Lord give her the strength and the patience to minister to our family.”
When it comes to you, would you rather people pray a blanket “bless everyone” prayer for you and your family or would you hope that they would pray for specific needs? Praying specifically is avoiding the “BE” kind of praying and making your specific requests know to God.
By the way, there is what I call “BM” prayers. This is not the prayer prayed in the restroom—although that is a great place to pray! The one who prays “BM prayers” is he or she who only finds time to pray “Bless me” prayers. Are your prayers “BM prayers”?
If one of my children came to me and said, “Daddy, will you bless me?” I wouldn’t know what they were talking about because they didn’t give me enough information.
Examples of Praying Specifically
Peter prayed specifically. When trying to walk on the water as Jesus did, Peter, when seeing the wind and becoming afraid, and beginning to sink, he didn’t cry out, “Lord bless me!” he cried out, "Lord, save me!"
In Colossians chapter one, found in the New Testament of the Bible, Paul prayed in specific terms for the Colossian believers:
(Col 1:9 NKJV) For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
(Col 1:10 NKJV) that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
(Col 1:11 NKJV) strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;
(Col 1:12 NKJV) giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
In this passage, Paul’s requests to God were specifically suited to the needs of his readers.
Spiritual insight (vs. 9)
A worthy walk (vs. 10)
Abundant power (vs. 11)
A thankful spirit (vs. 12)
In the prayer of Jabez, found in the Old Testament book of 1 Chronicles, Jabez prays specific requests to the Lord. Jabez doesn’t lump all his concerns into a “BM” or “BE” prayer. He asks for God’s blessing on his life and then make his request known in detail (1 Chronicles 4:10 NKJV) :
And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and…
enlarge my territory,
that Your hand would be with me
that You would keep me from evil
that I may not cause pain
So God granted him what he requested.
Right praying is praying specifically.
(2) Right Praying is praying completely
(Phil 4:6 NKJV) Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
“Everything” refers to “the whole” of something or praying “thoroughly.” This means that when we pray, we should pray completely. In other words, we should pray about everything. The Bible is telling us that everything should be taken to the Lord in prayer.
There is nothing too great or too small to bring to Him. Peter writes in 1 Peter 5:7, “…casting all your anxiety upon Him, for He cares for you.” In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul writes, “Pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you...”
“Praying completely” is realizing that prayer is both an act and an atmosphere.
* We come to the Lord at specific times and bring specific requests before Him.
* But we also should endeavor to live in an atmosphere of prayer. I think the Bible is saying that the mood of our life should be a prayerful mood.
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”
Notice that Paul says that the believer deals with worry by making both prayer and supplication to God about everything. In other words, he is saying, there is the regular praying kind of prayer and there is the supplication kind of prayer.
Warren Wiersbe says,
* “Prayer is the general word for making requests known to the Lord. It carries the idea of adoration, devotion and worship.”
* “Supplication is an earnest sharing of our needs and problems. There is no place for half hearted, insincere prayer!”
You may remember the encounter that Jacob had with the Angel of the Lord, who many theologians believe is a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament. By this time in his life, Jacob was tired of being a deceiver, con artist and trickster. God was bringing him to the end of himself to where wanted to change; He no longer wanted to be a con artist and swindler, he wanted to be authentic and serve God with all his heart.
The Scripture records the conversation between Jacob and the Lord as they wrestled and Jacob said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!” This wasn’t merely a prayer; this was supplication! The Scripture says they wrestled all night until the break of day (Genesis 32:24).
In the New Testament we find Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He is about to go to the Cross and bare our sin, our shame and our death. While his closest disciples were sleeping, Jesus was praying and while praying the Bible records that His sweat was like great drops of blood (hematidrosis) resulting from mental anguish. This is supplication. It is praying with an urgency and an intensity.
Paul prays in Romans 15:30-31, “Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from those…who do not believe.”
He writes in Colossians 4:12, “Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”
This is supplication and this is “right praying!” “Right Praying” is praying specifically; “Right Praying” is praying completely; finally, “right praying” is praying with thanksgiving.
(3) Right Praying is praying with thanksgiving
No parent feels good about having an ungrateful child and our Heavenly Father is no different. God enjoys hearing his children say, “Thank You.” It is God’s will that Christians be thankful:
(Eph 5:17-20 NKJV) Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
In a parallel passage of Scripture Paul spotlights the same truth:
“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” (Col 3:15 – 17 NKJV)
“Right Praying” is praying specifically…“Right Praying” is praying completely and “Right Praying” is praying with thanksgiving.
Right Praying accomplishes much in the Christian’s life. However, to narrow it down to the topic at hand, let me share with you five ways that right praying can help you with the mess of stress in your life:
It is through prayer that God delivers us from trouble:
(Jonah 1:17 NKJV) Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
(Jonah 2:1 NKJV) Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish's belly.
(Jonah 2:2 NKJV) And he said: "I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction, And He answered me. "Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice.
(Jonah 2:5 NKJV) The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head.
(Jonah 2:6 NKJV) I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God.
It is through prayer that God strengthens us
(Mat 26:40 NKJV) Then He came to the disciples and found them asleep, and said to Peter, "What? Could you not watch with Me one hour?
(Mat 26:41 NKJV) "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
* Jesus is saying when you and I feel tempted to sin – pray!
* When you feel tempted to doubt – pray!
* When you feel like you want to give up – pray!
It is through prayer that God frees us to consider His perspective rather than continuing to focus on our own. Prayer or communing with God frees us to rest in His will.
(Mark 14:35-36 NKJV) He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. And He said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will."
* When you feel tempted to take matters into your own hands – pray!
* When you feel tempted to “do your own thing” – pray!
* When you begin to worry or fret about your negative circumstances – pray!
It is through prayer that God gives us discernment – “spiritual intuition” i.e. “Is this a test from God or is this a temptation from the world, my flesh or the devil?”
Jas 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Jas 1:3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Jas 1:4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Jas 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
Jas 1:12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
Jas 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
Jas 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Jas 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Jas 1:16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.
It is through prayer that God says we can roll our anxiety on Him (1 Peter 5:7) - “Take it to the Lord in prayer…”
1Pe 5:6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
1Pe 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our refuge; take it to the Lord in prayer.
* “Right praying” brings deliverance from the anxiety and stress that results when facing trouble.
* “Right praying” fills you with God’s strength, it alerts you to God’s will
* “Right praying” arms you with spiritual discernment and
* “Right praying” assists you with the transfer of anxiety or rolling your cares onto the Lord who is strong enough to bear them.
How is your prayer life? Have you been stressed out lately? Maybe it is because you haven’t been involved in “Right Praying.”
(Phil 4:8 NKJV) Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy; meditate on these things.
There may be someone in our audience who needs what I will call an Anxiety Transfer. I get this from 1 Peter 5:6-7.
(1 Pet 5:6 NKJV) Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,
(1 Pet 5:7 NKJV) casting all your anxiety upon Him, for He cares for you.
God wants you to trust Him with your anxiety. Even more importantly, God wants you to trust Him with your eternal destiny.
Carrying around a load of sin is enough to cause the strongest of men to experience stress and anxiety. As we said earlier in this series, many try to bear this burden alone. Jesus wants to take this burden from you; all you must do is be willing to hand it over to Him.
Pray with me if you sense the need to trust Christ today: “Lord Jesus, I have sinned against you. I have been trying to run my own life according to my own rules. I believe that you died to take my sin away. I trust you now as my Savior from sin and the Boss of my life. Amen”
