Sunday, January 15, 2012

Turn To God When You’re Stressed

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. -- Romans 8:26

What do you do when you’re stressing out? Do you yell and take it out on everyone around you? Do you pop a pill? Do you eat? Do you exercise? Do you lie awake all night worrying?

We all have our different ways of coping with stress. And worry. Because worry is such a large part of stress. We just can’t seem to deal with whatever is going on in our lives.

Some of the stuff is awful. Dealing with the death of someone you love. A major illness that threatens everything you know. A child that has taken a wrong path and is headed toward certain destruction.

Some things are minor but they just add up to such a huge burden that it just seems you’ll never make it to the end. Single parents juggling a job, kids, bills, and household chores come immediately to mind. So do couples separated by deployment or caretakers for those who are elderly or sick.

I’ve learned that the best way to calm down is to go somewhere alone and read my Bible. It might only be for five minutes. Sometimes that’s all the time I can grab at that moment. But it calms me. It doesn’t even matter what I’m reading. It’s just that turning to God calms me.

One friend turns to her piano. When she is just so upset that she doesn’t know what to pray, or even how to find the words, she plays out her heart and her frustrations before God. And He hears her and calms His child.

I wonder what would happen if we all turned to God when anxiety takes over. I wonder how our lives would change if we cried out to our Heavenly Father in those moments of stress and worry. I imagine we would all eat less. Get angry less. Showcase our evil tongues less. And we would sleep better knowing that our Creator was taking care of us and those we love.

We are human and we want to handle everything all on our own. But we can’t. There are just too many things we can’t even begin to control. Even those things we think we control, honestly, we don’t. God does.

This doesn’t mean that bad things won’t happen. They do and they will. It’s just part of life in this fallen world. But we don’t have to let those things control us. We can give them to God, along with all our stress and worries.

So next time you’re about to eat a box of chocolate, open your Bible instead. The next time you’re about to lash out at those close to you, open your Bible instead. And the next time you stay awake in the night worrying, get up and open your Bible instead.

God hears. He knows. He cares. Give it to Him and let Him take care of you.