STRESS II

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

-Matthew 11:28

Dr.Jack Morris, a Christian Psychotherapist, defines stress as “A state of physical and emotional arousal caused by demands, pressures, and the wear and care of life.” He believes that it primarily comes from five sources, which he describes as (1) Change, (2) Conflicts, (3) Criticism, (4) Concern, (5) Compression, putting too much into life. Our greatest need today is not eliminating stress, it is being able to cope with it. When we are under stress, generally we are either powerless to change the circumstances, or wouldn’t change them if we could.

There is a common myth that Christians who really trust the Lord should not suffer the consequences of stress. This is about as unrealistic as saying that Christians should never have colds or flu. But the way in which a Christian views stress, and how he relates to it has a great deal to do with how he copes with it.

Have you ever considered that Paul was often stressed? On his second missionary journey, he wanted to go east into Bythinia, but the door was closed. Was not that stress? In Acts 27 and 28, Paul was shipwrecked, and the soldiers wanted to kill the prisoners including him to prevent their escape. Yet Paul says, “We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8,9). Paul faced stress, but he didn’t collapse; he coped.