Life can often be difficult. There are plenty of worries and fears that come our way, and sometimes they seem to pile up one upon another till it overwhelms us. Jesus understands the stress and anxiety we sometimes struggle with and he offers us relief and comfort when he said:
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus promises rest for your soul! God’s word gives us the most effective means of triumphing over the fears and anxieties of life. Consider the following verse:
“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7
We are what we think. Jesus himself pointed this out when he taught that what really makes a person “unclean” or “contaminated” is not the foods that they take into their physical bodies, but rather the thoughts and desires that they allow to dominate their thinking (see Matthew 15:17-20). The point then becomes clear; we need to work on controlling our thoughts and feelings. But how can we do that? Sometimes thoughts and feelings just seem to spontaneously erupt. Other times they come as the result of circumstances that are beyond our control; how can I not feel stressed out and anxious about the fact that a drunk driver just ran a red light and smashed into my car? How can I not stress over the fact that now I don’t have a way to work and so I might lose my job? And all because of some jerk got drunk and I had the misfortune of merely being in the wrong place at the wrong time!
“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.” Philippians 4:8
I call it the “power of positive displacement”. The Apostle Paul wrote the above and he is pointing out that we CAN control our thinking. By purposefully choosing to think about good things we can push out bad thoughts and feelings. The point to understand is the fact that even though we may be going through some bad times; like a drunk smashing into our car, there are still many good things going on in our life as well. For instance, if you have a dog, I bet he (or she) was really happy to see you when you got home …even though a drunk had just wrecked your car. And that’s the way life is, even though bad things may happen to us, our dog is still going to wag his tail and jump around and just be really happy to see us when we get home! And that’s pretty cool when you stop and think about it. But it’s just that – you have to stop and THINK about it. And when you do actually stop and think about it you will generally find that there are lots of positive things that are going on in your life. The negative events of life do not make the positive things of life simply disappear. But we often think …and feel …that they do. We need to stop and think about the good things that are going on in our life in spite of the bad things. When we do we generally find that we are not so stressed out and anxious anymore.
Now I realize that doing the above isn’t always easy. It’s kind of like losing weight; it is fairly easy to understand the “theory” of weight loss: decrease the amount of caloric intake (diet) and increase the amount of calories burned (exercise). Yes, it’s pretty easy to understand what you need to do to lose weight – it’s actually doing it that can prove to be difficult! And so it is with overcoming our stress and anxiety. That is why attending church is another important element in effectively dealing with stress and anxiety. It makes you a part of a group of people who in reality are very much like you. You see, active church-going Christians are struggling with various issues of life just like everybody else, including you. What makes these “church people” different is that they have found the answers to their life struggles in the Word of God. They have found great encouragement and support in the relationship that Christ teaches them to build, first with God and secondly with one another. And so can you. Plan on dropping by for a visit sometime and see for yourself the difference that Jesus and his church can make in your life.