When you are in the middle of a fierce storm feeling out of control and tossed around, you may be asking Jesus, like His disciples did in Mark 4:38, “Do you even care that we are in this storm?”
The answer is yes, He cares.
Yes, He knows.
Yes, He can handle it.
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7 NIV
Jesus can handle whatever you are carrying.
Give it to Him.
“The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.
But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.”Proverbs 24:16 NLT
What trips you up?
Is it overthinking, overeating, over-controlling, overworking, oversleeping, over-it-all-so-I-am-quitting everything?
It really isn’t what trips you up that is dangerous, it is what keeps you down when you fall.
You fell.
You are human.
Get up.
You are loved.
God is not done with you.
You have a purpose.
God has a vision for your life.
Get up and take one step toward it today.
“Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life, then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ. Keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising him always.” Phillpians 4:6-8 The Message Version
How do you survive in a world that is pulling on you in all directions?
There is so much to know, too much to know.
Knowing everything that is going on in the world is overwhelming and undermining at the same time.
It is overwhelming because we are finite beings who are limited to one place at one time.
It is undermining because it erodes hope and breeds fear giving birth to an epidemic of anxiety.
How do we survive?
We choose to withdraw in the grace filled arms of God before we look into the lens of world.
We step into a shower of worship and allow God to saturate us with His presence before we step onto the sidewalk of humanity.
We go to Him without fear of judgement or censure.
We speak to Him about what is really going on in our hearts and hold nothing back.
We aim our thoughts on the target of that which is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind.
Not to ignore what is happening in the world around us but to be free to see it through the perspective of something bigger, someone bigger, someone who spoke it into existence, walked among it, died for it and is redeeming it one life at a time.
Someone who is a Savior and the only One who can save it.
God is still doing glorious work in you and in me.
I am overwhelmed by it.
Which is so much better than being overwhelmed by everything else.
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Matthew 11:28-30 MSG
When you are tired, go to Jesus.
When you are worn out, His arms are open.
When your To-Do List is too long and you are overwhelmed, lay it down.
Get away, get out and get renewed.
With Jesus.
For an entire day.
So you can be reminded that He is God and you are not.
So you can be reminded that the world keeps turning because He IS.
So you can learn to live in the unforced rhythms of grace instead of the anarchy of urgency.
So you can live free and rested in His love.
Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever.”
Hebrews 12:2 MSG
Jesus entered brokenness, was broken in it and then rose again to offer hope and wholeness to the world.
He didn’t lose sight of God’s future, He focused on it. He focused on you.
When you are overwhelmed with the difficulty before you – fix your eyes on Jesus.
He went through the unimaginable so that He could get you through the impossible.
“Friends, stay where you were called to be. God is there. Hold the high ground with him at your side.”
1 Corinthians 7:24 MSG
Stay where God has called you to be.
If where you are is boring, stay there.
If where you are is overwhelming, stay there.
If where you are is fun, stay there.
If where you are is challenging, stay there.
He will give you the strength to withstand the monotony, wisdom to navigate the stress, clarity to get the most out of the fun and vision to conquer the challenge.
Look to God for your identity, your purpose, and the strength to live it out.
Hold the high ground.
Stay where you are.
“Friends, stay where you were called to be. God is there. Hold the high ground with him at your side.”
1 Corinthians 7:24 MSG
Stay where God has called you to be.
If where you are is boring, stay there.
If where you are is overwhelming, stay there.
If where you are is fun, stay there.
If where you are is challenging, stay there.
He will give you the strength to withstand the monotony, wisdom to navigate the stress, clarity to get the most out of the fun and vision to conquer the challenge.
Look to God for your identity, your purpose, and the strength to live it out.
Hold the high ground.
Stay where you are.
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one.”Luke 10:41 NIV
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion?Come to me.Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.I’ll show you how to take a real rest.Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it.Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”Matthew 11:28-30 MSG
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one.””Luke 10:41 NIV
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion?Come to me.Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.I’ll show you how to take a real rest.Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it.Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”(Matthew 11:28-30 MSG)
What are the things you are stressed about?
Jesus put stress in two categories:
1. Worries about all the things you have to do.
2. Worry about all the things you want to get.
“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. (Mark 4:18, 19 MSG)
A stress-filled life strangles the power of God’s Word in you. It makes it like a dormant seed unable to break out of it’s shell . It can not grow to become the formidable, fruit-bearing, Spirit reproducing Word it is meant to be.
You hear the Word of God and it is exactly what you need. But then you begin thinking of all you need to do and all the things you don’t have and soon you have forgotten that Word.
Don’t let stress to undermine the revelation of God’s powerful Word in your life.
Don’t let your to-do lists to dictate your time in the Word, get in the Word and let it dictate your to-do lists.
Just as stress strangles the Word, so the Word strangles stress. It just matters which one comes first.
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ”
Matthew 6:33-34 NIV
The key is in what your are seeking.
Break up with stress.
Embrace God’s presence and go after his kingdom- he will take care of the rest.
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