Stress Relief
Scott R Bayles, preacher
Outside the Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen, which is Denmark’s Parliament building, there are three stone figures guarding the entrance. They represent the earache, the headache, and the stomach ache. They were placed there to suggest that if you enter politics, you will have all three.
I think that most of us would agree that entering politics is likely to cause a great deal of stress. We live in a very stress-filled society. And it effects all of us, not just politicians. According to the experts, stress comes in four different flavors:
Acute stress is what most people identify as stress. It makes itself felt through tension headaches, emotional upsets, gastrointestinal disturbances, feelings of agitation and pressure.
Episodic acute stress is more serious and can lead to migraines, hypertension, stroke, heart attack, anxiety, depression, serious gastrointestinal distress.
Chronic stress is the most serious of all. It’s the stress that never ends. It grinds us down until our resistance is gone. Serious systemic illnesses such as diabetes, decreased immunocompetence, and perhaps cancer are its hallmark.
Traumatic stress is the result of massive acute stress, the effects of which can reverberate through our systems for years. It’s commonly known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
The type of stress that you experience will differ from person to person, but we all experience some form of stress. Experts have come up with a number of suggestions for dealing with stress: (1) Identify your triggers, (2) get a massage, (3) practice breathing exercises, (4) do some aerobic exercising, (5) develop a support network through friends, family, and co-workers.
While all of those may be useful suggestions, for Christians, we have a much better method of coping with stress. In this inspired prose, David gives us the Lord’s prescription for dealing with the stress in our lives...
Psalm 4:1 ~ Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. (2) O sons of men, how long will my honor become a reproach? How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception? Selah. (3) But know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for Himself; The Lord hears when I call to Him. (4) Tremble, and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. (5) Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And trust in the Lord. (6) Many are saying, "Who will show us any good?" Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, O Lord! (7) You have put gladness in my heart, More than when their grain and new wine abound. (8) In peace I will both lie down and sleep, For You alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety.
Many scholars believe that David wrote Psalm 4 as he was about to retire for the evening. He couldn’t do much about the war around him, but he could do something about the war within him. Instead of lying in bed fretting, stewing and worrying, he committed himself and his situation to the Lord. Through David, God teaches us some important lessons about peace of mind during times of stress. In coping with stress, our first response should be...
I. SUPPLICATION:
Psalm 4:1 ~ Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.
Prayer is still the best place to start in response to any problem we might face in life. Jesus said, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you" (Matt. 7:7). Our Heavenly Father wants to provide us with the relief that we so desperately need.
But, it falls to us to ask, seek, and knock. There are three parts to David’s prayer in verse one: praise, appreciation, and petition. He starts by saying, "O God of my righteousness!" David is praising God for who He is. It is important sometimes for us to take our eyes off ourselves and realize the goodness and greatness of our God. This life is not about you. It’s about God. I think there would be much less stress in the world if more people had the attitude: "It’s not about me!"
Secondly, David expresses appreciation to God, saying, "You have relieved me in my distress." Notice that David uses the past tense here. He is acknowledging that God has relieved his distress in the past, and David is thankful for that. Many times when we are stressed out over something we have a hard time remembering all the good that we have experienced in life. David reflects on the past with a heart of thankfulness. God has done some wonderful things in our lives, often using stressful circumstances to bring about His purposes. By appreciating what God has done in the past we, again, stop focusing inward and start looking upward!
Third, David makes his petition, "Be gracious to me and hear my prayer." David asks for grace in this situation. Perhaps David realized that his trouble was, at least in part, a result of his past sins. Sometimes deliverance from our distress is as simple as saying, "God, if I?ve brought this trouble on myself I?m asking You to forgive me." It is truly amazing how gracious God is willing to be to us, if only we would ask Him.
Evangelist John R. Rice once wrote: I once imagined I was in Heaven. Walking along with the angel Gabriel, I said, "Gabe, what is that big building there?"
"You’ll be disappointed," he answered. "I don’t think you want to see it." But I insisted, and he showed me floor after floor of beautiful gifts, all wrapped and ready to be sent.
"Gabriel, what are all these?"
He said, I thought rather sadly, "We wrapped all these things, but you never asked for them." (Nelson’s p.631)
Truly God has great gifts ready for us, if we are willing to ask for them. Psychologists tell us that, in many cases, simply talking to someone about our problems will help us put thing in perspective. Talking to God, prayer, is perhaps the greatest gift we have been given; and, by taking advantage of that gift, we can greatly reduce the stress in our lives. So let’s follow David’s example when coping with the stresses of life. Supplication ought to be our first response, but our second response is...
II. STILLNESS:
Psalm 4:3 ~ Tremble, and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still.
Perhaps the simplest command God has ever given, and yet the most difficult to keep, is to "be still." The Bible says, "Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord" (Psalm 27:14). People have brought a great deal of stress upon themselves, simply not "waiting for the Lord." Phillips Brooks once put it this way, "The trouble is that I’m in a hurry, but God isn’t" (Nelson’s p.599).
It was the same for the Children of Israel in the wilderness. God led them with the spectacular display of a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. Over time, the people grew very impatient. Among other things, God was teaching them to wait on His leadership; to be patient. We have to allow God to do things in His time, not ours!
In a Christmas interview in 1986, Richard Nixon spoke of peace efforts underway throughout the world during the Reagan administration. A reporter asked, "Is the USA better off this Christmas than it was this time last year?"
The former president answered: "As Americans, we have many great strengths, but one of our weaknesses is impatience. The Russians think in terms of decades, the Chinese in terms of centuries. Americans think in terms of years, months, and even days. But, if in the quest for a realistic, long lasting peace, we expect overnight success -- instant gratification -- we are bound to be disappointed."
There is great insight in those thoughts. In many ways we have become an impatient people: we want things our way and we want them now! However, whether we are seeking world peace or inner peace, we must re-learn what it is to "wait upon the Lord."
When David writes, "Meditate in your heart upon your bed," he gives a vivid picture of what it means to "be still." Every Christian ought to take time out for God; set aside a time, maybe in bed before we go to sleep, to mediate on God’s Word and share our hearts with our Lord. About the only way to manage stillness is to intentionally insert it into your daily schedule. Make an appointment with God every day and don?t break it. The pay off will be great in many dimensions -- stress relief included.
When life becomes stressful, the Lord invites us to practice supplication, stillness, and finally...
III. SACRIFICE:
Psalm 4:5 ~ Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And trust in the Lord.
Putting our trust in the Lord and behaving righteously while under distress, is the kind of sacrifice that is pleasing to God. "Trust in the Lord," is an essential part of the Christian life. I heard a story recently:
A pilot was having difficulty landing his small airplane because fog had hidden the runway. So the air traffic controller decided to bring the plane in by radar. As the pilot received instruction, he suddenly recalled a tall poll in his flight path. Stricken with panic, he feverishly appealed to the control tower. A blunt reply came back, "You obey instructions, we’ll take care of obstructions."
It’s difficult to trust when we can’t see what’s ahead, isn’t it? The Bible urges, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. (6) In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5).
We do not always know where the Lord’s path will lead us when we first become Christians. We may end up missionaries in a far land. We may become preachers (or married to preachers). We may serve in hospitals or Christians schools. We do not need to know at the beginning where God’s work will take us. It is enough to trust God with tomorrow. We get the details bit by bit as we learn the Word more perfectly, and see the doors of opportunity that God opens. To often, we worry about tomorrow instead of trusting God to see us through.
A television program preceding the Winter Olympics one year featured blind skiers being trained for down hill skiing, impossible as it sounds. Paired with sighted skiers, the blind skiers were taught, on the flats, how to make right and left turns. When that was mastered, they were taken to the slalom slope, where there sighted partners skied beside them shouting, "Left!" and "Right!" As they obeyed the commands, they were able to negotiate the course and cross the finish line, depending solely on the sighted skier’s word. It was either complete trust or catastrophe.
What a vivid picture of the Christian life! God delights in the "sacrifices of righteousness, and trust in the Lord!" That means believing and behaving in light of God’s promises, precepts, and principles. If we live our lives in accordance with God’s Word and fully relying on God, then we will be truly pleasing to Him, and will have the guaranteed hope of eternal life! Now, I don’t know what could possibly be more stress-relieving than that!
Conclusion:
We all experience stress from time to time. Maybe you deal with it by getting a massage. Maybe you practice breathing exercises or some other stress-management technique. But, I think that we would all do well to follow the Lord’s prescription for stress:
Supplication: Take your worries and woes to the Lord, leave them at His throne, He will help you carry your burden.
Stillness: Wait for the Lord. Meditate daily upon His Word and His will.
Sacrifice: Trust and Obey the Lord, and He will be pleased with your life.
Invitation:
There are many things that people stress about in this world. Perhaps one of the most worrisome questions is "What on earth am I here for?" The only way to find the answer to that question and start living a life of meaning is through the blood of Jesus Christ! If you are not a Christian, we invite you to be saved this morning through the cleansing power of Jesus. Please come...
