TITLE: "everything under the sun"

In the secular world, there are a million solutions to alleviating the stress in our lives. But Jesus has only one answer to this question. Stop stressing and hand your burdens over to him. Simply put but in...

Matthew 6  30-33"  Jesus says.....

 If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. (The message)

The key to handling stress from a Christian perspective is to get rid of the independent spirit which is... I stand alone and do things  my way, to moving on to a more dependent approach; Lord I have messed up, or I can't handle this on my own, please help. Two very different approaches with very different outcomes. At the end of the day we need to evaluate in our own hearts the following questions when we feel stressed out, or worried.

1. Does Jesus have the power to solve all my worries and stresses, he's helped others but will he help me?

2. Do I trust him enough on a daily basis to take my hand off the steering wheel of my life and let him do the driving?

Food for thought! 

What I am about to say next might sound extreme but some of us are so used to handling things ourselves, living in a totally freaked out state... of continuous perpetual worry unconciously and consciously that not worrying is almost an alien concept.

BLUE SKIES AHEAD

This illustration examines the issue of the storms and problems we come across throughout our lives. The blue skies represent the love and mercy of the Lord as a comforting reminder to us all, that it might be stormy or stressy now, but with Jesus at our side we can be certain that there will be blue skies ahead.. Everything has it's time and seasons (see Ecclesiastes)

Helpful verses to meditate on

Mark 4:19

The seed cast in the weeds represents the ones who hear the kingdom news but are overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get. The stress strangles what they heard, and nothing comes of it.

1 Pet 5:7

So be content with who you are, and don't put on airs. God's strong hand is on you; he'll promote you at the right time. Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you.


A few bible hero's who knew a thing or two about stress

David, Rahab, Paul, Hannah, Elijah. The great thing about it is that Jesus suffered  died and was raised for us so that when we do suffer stress he is always there to help us out of it..