Stress and the Christian

Stress and the Christian

Romans 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

As we study and reflect on God’s Word, we are changed, we are transformed. The transformation that began with our salvation is continued as we study His Word. The study alone isn’t what does it though, it’s the study of His Word along with spending time with Him.

Now, I’m not talking about carving out 15-30 mins a day to pray when I say “spending time with Him”. That’s often what others will tell new Christians but unfortunately it becomes a “duty” or a ritual way to often and there’s little feeling or companionship in it. It becomes a dry recital of a list of wants way to often. When I speak of spending time with the Lord, I mean for us to interact with Him all the time throughout the day just as though He actually was with us. The reason for this is because He really IS with us, and most of the time He’s pretty much ignored or treated like an unwelcome guest at best.

So when we’re studying His Word, we should be talking to Him as well, at the same time. Who better to get understanding of the Bible from then the one who wrote it? Then as we continue our day, we should continue to converse with Him throughout the day about what’s going on with us—again, just as though He was really with us—because He really is!

It’s this combination of interaction with Him and the study of His Word that brings about our transformation to be more and more like Jesus. Our lives do not belong to us any longer as we were bought with a price. So our lives now are our sacrifice to Him, which He purifies and transform daily so that we become more and more like Him, making us holy, sacred and acceptable to Him.

1 Peter 2:5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Each day as we interact and study His Word with Him, deepens and solidifies the foundations of our faith so that when the storms come, we can stand firm, and we won’t collapse under the stress. It’s as though He makes His Word a part of us as He transforms us.

Are you wondering what all this has to do with overcoming worry and stress? Think of it this way; have you ever noticed God being worried or stressed out over things? Of course not! In fact, He’s the one that tells us not to worry! So you see, the more we are transformed by Him to become more like Him, the less we will worry and the less we will be stressed out. Things like worry, depression, stress, and fear won’t be an issue for us anymore because we will have built such a strong solid foundation on the Truth that the lies of the enemy won’t be able to take hold of us like they do unbelievers.

We’ll discuss this a little more tomorrow.

Join us at FH for this study on Stress!