“Turn Stress Into Strength”
Ruth 1:1-22, 4:13-17
Romans 8:28
John 16:33
There is a common experience for every person in all nationalities and cultures. We all experience stress. We all have to learn to live with stress. The highest times of stress in a person’s life include:
Death in the family
Divorce
Job loss
Starting a new job
Moving to a new location
The book of Ruth is about how a family learned to find the good side of stress and turn stress into strength. This family had to deal with the highest stress factors: death of family members and moving to a new location.
Elimeleck and Naomi his wife and their two sons moved from Bethlehem to Moab a trip of 100 miles taking 5-6 days of travel. The family made the move because of a severe famine in the land of Judah.
During their ten year stay in Moab Elimelech died and their two sons Mahlon and Kilion married Moabite women, Orpha and Ruth. At the end of the ten year stay both Mahlon and Kilion also died.
Naomi heard that the famine in Judah had ceased and the land of Judah was producing good crops again. As a single woman in Moab Naomi had no way to support herself so she decided to travel the 100 miles back to her homeland in Judah. Naomi wasn’t sure how secure her future would be in Judah so she encouraged her daughters to stay in Moab and find husbands to provide for their needs.
Orpha decided to stay but Ruth made the commitment to travel with her mother-in-law and said: “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. I will go wherever you go and live wherever you life. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.” (Ruth 1:16)
In the midst of personal tragedy and stress – death of their husbands, and moving to a new place – Naomi and Ruth ventured out by faith and trusted God for their future.
If someone tells you they are so spiritual and have so much faith they never experience any stress or tension, don’t believe them. Jesus said in (John 16:33), “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” As long as we live in this world we will experience stress and tribulations. Our hope is to turn the stress into strength.
Princeton Research Associates, reported that 65% of those polled said they feel great stress at last one day a week. That compares with 55 % in 1983. To control stress 82% watch TV, read, or listen to music, 76 % talk to a spouse, parent or close friend, 69 % play sports or go for a walk, while 40% smoke or drink alcohol and 36% go shopping.
Ruth had to face the kinds of tension and stress that would have blown most people out of the water. First of all she was a woman in a culture that didn’t treat women kindly. A Jewish man’s prayer in the morning would often be: “God, I thank you that I was not born a slave, a gentile, or a woman.” Ruth was born in Moab. The law of Moses said that the Moabites were to have no place in the land and life of Israel. Then both her husband and her brother-in-law died suddenly. She was a widow with no visible signs of support. To make matters worse her mother-in-law was moving back to her home country of Judah.
When we go through times of stress the experience often pushes us back to basics. We ask, “What is really important in life?” “What things can I do without?”
In Judges 7, God assisted Gideon as Gideon confronted the tensions and pressures of battle to eliminate the “nonessentials” for battle. Gideon did not need to be encumbered with several thousand soldiers bound by fear or the thousands whose physical needs distracted their attention from the enemy. With only 300 men Gideon subdued Israel’s enemies and the land enjoyed peace for 40 years.
Moses learned from his father-in-law Jethro the value of delegation to lower stress in his life. Moses was trying to serve as judge for thousands of people on a daily basis from morning to evening. His level of stress was unbelievable. He learned the art of delegation and allowed others to share in the joy of service.
As a church we are committed to the concept of team leadership. We want teams working together in our Sunday school and Christian life classes. We want teams involved in lay ministry and pastoral care. You can help our church go forward by joining a team. Next Sunday we will have our annual sign up for your participation in various ministries in the Willow Vale Church.
We all have a choice to make. We will either maintain our spiritual life or make a commitment to grow and become a player for the Lord. We can sit on the sideline and let the rest of the world go by or get involved and become a world changer.
Last Sunday I challenged the Willow Vale Church Congregation to make the commitment to develop a holy habit of reading God’s Word and keeping a Life Journal. We have more journals available and I encourage you to take one and use it as a resource for spiritual growth.
The Apostle Paul was always on the stretch for the Lord. Philippians 3:13-14, “No, dear friends, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.”
God rewarded Ruth for her faithfulness. She traveled with Naomi back to Judah and committed her life to the living God. She didn’t sit around and feel sorry for herself but she went out into the fields and worked hard following harvest hands, picking up whatever kernels of grain might be left over. God provided her a husband in Boaz. They had a son Obed. Obed had a son Jesse and Jesse’s youngest son was David and Jesus was in the lineage of David.
Ruth converted her stress into strength. Romans 8:28 was true for Ruth and also for us. “God causes all things that (that includes whatever tension you are going through) to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (NASB) Verse 29 tells us what God’s purpose is: “To mold us into the image of Jesus Christ.”
Whenever you are going through a time of stress you can ask: “How can this stress make me more like Jesus?”
God is able to sustain you when you go through unbelievable stress. The hymn, “It is Well with My Soul” was written by Horatio Spafford after a series of disasters struck his family. Spafford, a successful businessman and a close friend of the evangelist D.L. Moody, had his business ravaged by the Chicago fire in 1871.
The worse was yet to come. Two years later, Spafford’s wife and four children were sailing to Europe for a vacation when another vessel struck the ship and sank it. Spafford was supposed to join them later after he had wrapped up some business.
Three of Spafford’s children were swept away by the waves while the mother fiercely held on to the youngest. A little while later the youngest child, too, was swept from her arms. Mrs. Spafford became unconscious and was rescued by sailors.
Back in the United States, Horatio Spafford waited anxiously ten days for the news of his family well-being. His grief-stricken wife sent him a telegram, with two words only: "Saved alone." As he mourned his family’s loss, he wrote this bold hymn:
"When peace like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea-billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul."
God wants to help us in times of stress if we will only ask him. The story is told of a preacher who was caught in a flood. The water was rising around the church and finally reached the steps of the church. A rescue boat came by, and the rescuers shouted, “Get in, preacher, the water is continuing to rise, and you’re going to drown.” But the preacher said, “I’ve got faith, God will save me,” and declined the ride.
The water continued to rise. The preacher was no on the second floor looking out the window at the water when a man on a raft floated by the church. The man called out, “Get on, preacher, the water is continuing to rise and you’re going to drown.” Again the preacher declined the offer, “I’ve got faith, The Lord will save me.”
When the water continued to rise, the preacher found himself straddling the roof of the church. A helicopter flew by and the men in the chopper called out, “Climb up the ladder and come on board the chopper. Again the preacher said, “I’ve got faith, the Lord will save me.” The water continued to rise and the preacher drowned. He stood in heaven and asked, “Lord I had faith, Why didn’t you save me?” The Lord replied, “What do you mean? I sent a rescue boat, a raft and a helicopter to save you.”
God wants to help you through every time of stress in your life. You have to ask Him to receive His help. Philippians 4:6-7 gives this promise in God’s Word, “Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”
Let me summarize this message by giving you four simple steps to turn stress into strength.
1. Change your way of thinking. Change the way you think about stress and problems you face. A key factor in converting stress to strength is not what happens to us, nor how big or how many problems we have, but how we react or respond to the problem.
Two young boys were raised by an alcoholic father. As they became older, they separated from their broken home and each went his own way. Some years later, a psychologist was analyzing what drunkenness does to the children in a home. In his research, one of his assistants interviewed these two men. One was a clean sharp gentleman who abstained from alcohol. The other man was a hopeless drunk like his father. The researcher asked each individually why they turned out like they did. And they both gave the same identical answer: “What else could you expect when you had a father like mine?”
Make a habit of setting your mind in the right direction. Begin your day by saying: “This is going to be a great day. God is guiding and directing my steps. His favor is surrounding me. Goodness and mercy are following me. I’m excited about today?”
Don’t let negative thoughts sabotage your expectations. “Well, nothing, good ever happens to me.” “I don’t think I’ll ever get married. I haven’t even had a date in ten years!” “My dreams never come to pass.” “I knew I wouldn’t get promoted.”
Stop looking at everything you’ve lost and start looking all that you have left.
If you are depressed, you must realize that no one is making you depressed. If you’re not happy, nobody is forcing you to be unhappy. If you’re negative and you have a bad attitude, nobody’s coercing you to be bored, uncooperative, sarcastic, or sullen. You choose to remain in that condition. The only person who can improve the situation is you. Remember you are God’s workmanship, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Workmanship implies that you are not yet a finished product; you are a “work in process.”
You are a person of value don’t think defeated thoughts about yourself. If I had a crisp $100 bill and held it out to you. Would you want it? If I crumpled up the $100 bill would you still want it? If I jumped up and down on the $100 bill and used it to dust the furniture. Would you still want it?
Of course. Why? Because it is still valuable despite the rough treatment it has experienced. Regardless of your past experiences and failures you have value to God. You never lose your value.
You might say, but “my life is like scrambled eggs and you can’t unscramble eggs.” Yes, but God can take scrambled eggs and make an amazing omelet. Nothing is too hard for God.
1. Change your thinking. There are some things you cannot afford to think about. Philippians 4:8 “…Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
2. Turn Stress into Strength. The way you react to circumstances in life you can turn stress into strength. Ruth turned her stressful situation in life into strength by trusting God and working hard. God blessed her with his favor. Her job provided for the needs of both her mother-in-law and herself.
A little boy went out to the backyard to play with a baseball bat and ball. He said to himself, “I am the best hitter in the world.” Then he threw up the ball in the air and took a swig at it, but he missed. Without a moment’s hesitation, he picked up the ball and tossed it in the air again saying, “I’m the best hitter in the world.” He sung and missed. Strike two. He tossed the ball up again, concentration more intensely, even more determined, saying, “I am the best hitter in the world!” He swung the bat with all his might. Whiff! Strike three. The little boy laid down his bat and smiled real big. “What do you know?” He said, “I’m the best pitcher in all the world.”
By faith you can stop talking to God about how big your mountains are, and start talking to your mountains about how big your God is!
3. Change your way of speaking. James 1:19 has a good word for us: “Dear friends, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.” We can learn to speak with faith-filled words. Words can either build up or tear down. Our goal is to speak encouraging words that build up. We can learn to speak God’s Word in our every day lives.
Would it make a difference if you stopped taking about negative things in your life and began talking about God’s Word? You would experience a new sense of joy in your home if you changed the way you speak. Stop speaking words of defeat and start speaking about words of solutions and victory. Speak words of blessing over your children rather than predictions of gloom and doom.
4. Forget the past. Philippians 3:13 is easy to quote but not that easy to put into practice. “…Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.”
Philippians 3:13 is calling us to move on in our life. John 5 we are told about a man born lame for 38 years. He spent every day of his life lying on a mat by the pool of Bethesda, hoping for a miracle. Jesus saw the man and asked him a question that was probably puzzling to all standing by, “Do you want to be made well?” It was obvious that the man was cripple and unable to walk.
The same question could be asked of many people today: “Do you want to be well or do you want to continue lying around feeling sorry for yourself?” Jesus looked at the lame man and said, “If you want to get well get up and move on. Get moving with your life.” The man obeyed and was miraculously healed.
Whatever hurts you have experienced in the past. Forget the past and move on.
Consider praying this prayer: “Dear Lord, right now, a stress and problem I’m facing right now personally is ____________. I turn this situation over to you, knowing you love me and are in control of my days. Help me to live believing you are constantly working in my behalf. And let me be on the lookout today for evidences of your miracle touch.”
By God’s grace turn your stresses into strengths.
