Too much to do and too little time. People depending on you at work and at home. A mind that will not switch off at night. Stress is so common that we treat it as normal, but it wears people out. Does the Bible have anything to say to it?<\/p>\n
\n\u201cCast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you\u201d (Psalm 55:22)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Why do we get overwhelmed with stress?<\/h2>\n
Sometimes because we have taken on more than we should. Often because life has loaded us with more than we chose: children to raise, parents growing frail, illness, a demanding job, too little money. Many of these are good duties, done out of love.<\/p>\n
Luke tells of two sisters, Martha and Mary, who had Jesus to their home. Mary \u201csat at the Lord\u2019s feet listening to His message. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations to be made\u201d (Luke 10:39\u201340). Martha was not doing anything wrong. She was serving her guest. But her work had filled her mind until there was no room left to listen to Him, and it spilled over into resentment: \u201cLord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?\u201d<\/p>\n
Does being stressed-out really matter?<\/h2>\n
It does. It harms our sleep and our health, and it makes us short with the people we love most.<\/p>\n
It can also do a quieter harm. Jesus answered Martha gently. He said her name twice, \u201cMartha, Martha,\u201d and went on: \u201cyou are worried and upset about many things. But only one thing is necessary\u201d (Luke 10:41\u201342). He did not tell her that her work was worthless. He told her that it had crowded out what she needed most, which was to hear Him. That is the danger of a life lived at full stretch. We can be so occupied with urgent things that we never attend to the most important thing of all: where we stand with God.<\/p>\n
I am very stressed, how can I get comfort?<\/h2>\n
Hear the invitation of Jesus. It is addressed to people exactly like you: \u201cCome to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest\u201d (Matthew 11:28).<\/p>\n
The deepest rest He gives is rest from the burden of our sin and from the hopeless effort to make ourselves acceptable to God. He carried that burden to the cross. Come to Him, turning from your sin and trusting in Him, and you will be at peace with God. Then everything else is carried differently, because you no longer carry it alone.<\/p>\n
He also said: \u201cseek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow\u201d (Matthew 6:33\u201334). When God has first place, the other things find their proper size.<\/p>\n
If you belong to Christ<\/h2>\n
Then your burdens are known to a Father who cares. \u201cCast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you\u201d (1 Peter 5:7). To cast a burden is to hand it over. You still do what is in front of you today, but you leave the outcome with Him.<\/p>\n
Some things that help:<\/p>\n
\n
- Pray about the particular things.<\/strong> \u201cIn everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus\u201d (Philippians 4:6\u20137).<\/li>\n
- Keep the one thing necessary.<\/strong> However full the day, make time to hear Christ in His word, if only for a few minutes.<\/li>\n
- Take today only.<\/strong> Jesus tells us not to borrow tomorrow\u2019s trouble.<\/li>\n
- Rest, and let others help.<\/strong> God made us to need sleep, a day of rest each week, and one another. It is not weakness to say that you cannot do everything.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Too much to do and too little time. People depending on you at work and at home. A mind that will not switch off at night. Stress is so common that we treat it as normal, but it wears people out. Does the Bible have anything to say to it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1332,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[16,17,15],"bh_theme":[50],"class_list":["post-1334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trials","tag-bible","tag-god","tag-stress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblehelp.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblehelp.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblehelp.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblehelp.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblehelp.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1334"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/biblehelp.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2813,"href":"https:\/\/biblehelp.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334\/revisions\/2813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblehelp.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblehelp.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblehelp.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblehelp.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1334"},{"taxonomy":"bh_theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblehelp.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bh_theme?post=1334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}