Pursuing God's way and will can too often be difficult and challenging, but that doesn't mean God wants us stressed and burnt out. In fact, God wants us to be void of stress as we face the challenges in life, knowing that, through Christ, we can conquer internal pressure in the midst of external pressure.
The number one cause of stress today is worry, and Jesus said in Matthew 6:25, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?" (ESV). Though pressures may come, God doesn't want us to be overcome by stress and anxiety; He wants us to be preserved from it.
The problem we have as pressured individuals is that we think pressure and stress always come hand in hand, but I have met victorious believers who can cancel out the stress even when pressures seem immensely overwhelming. What is the secret to defeating stress?
The secret does not lie on a principle, idea or concept, but on a Person. We find the battle of stress can be won and has already been won by the Person of Jesus Christ who has conquered sin and the grave for us. Stress can often come as a result of anxiety, and anxiety is a sin that leads us to trust our own efforts instead of God's finished work. Jesus conquered every sin, including the sin of anxiety, so there is now no need to be anxious.
We are often anxious when we feel we are out of control and it feels hard—even impossible—to be rid of the sin of worry. We try and try to stop worrying, but it just comes. I admit to having been a slave to worry for a large portion of my life, and I struggled to get rid of it by my own strength. I later found out, however, that worry could not be removed by my efforts, but by the efforts of Jesus Christ and the empowering work of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus declares in Matthew 11:28, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (ESV). We can rest knowing that we have a present help in times of trouble and a foundation of truth in Jesus Christ. Though challenges may become overwhelming, when our hearts are filled with the grace of God we can battle and conquer worry by finding hope and assurance that Jesus can and will overcome any challenge for us. All we have to do is rest in Him.
