Stress: Part 2 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

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Transcript

Good morning.

We’re talking all this week on the topic of stress. As you think about your life right now, what stress is there in your life? Maybe even me asking that question makes a pang of stress rise up in your heart and mind.

The circumstances of life circle around, don’t they, and there seems to be an ebb and flow of stress in our lives, and we come through these times when things are good, we’re happy, we’re thankful to God for what’s happening in our lives and the blessings in our lives, and there’s other times where, despite those blessings, circumstances come together and there’s great stress.

Our daughter got married a couple of weeks ago.

And 2 weeks before the wedding, the reception venue burned to the ground. Well, there was instant stress in our household over that. Not only that, but I faced many times of stress in my life, even in my ministry, just the pressures of ministry.

Getting ready for doing radio spots with you, I know I have a deadline, and I have to be ready, and there’s some stress involved in that, and much more than that. There are times of great stress that have come into my life, and I’m sure the same is true for you.

How do you respond to that?

We looked yesterday at this time of enormous stress in a life of Elijah the prophet in the Old Testament.

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When he faced that stress, this is what happened. After he was threatened by Queen Jezebel, and he ran for his life. The next verse says, but Elijah himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree.

And he asked that he might die.

He’s really stressed out, isn’t he?

Saying it is enough now, O Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my father’s, and he lay down and slept under a broom tree.

And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, arise and eat. And he looked and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water.

And he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.

And he arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the Mount of God.

I would say to you this when you face times of enormous stress in your life, you can feel the pressure mounting.

Try to find a way to have a pocket of rest in your life.

And you may say, well, I don’t know how that can be. I have several small children at home. I have to take care of. I have to do all the things in the house. There’s so much. How can I rest? Or maybe your, your job is such that the pressures are unrelenting.

I don’t know how you rest, but you need to find a way to find some rest, even if you take some long service leave, carve out a little time, even if it’s just adding a day to your weekend and taking a day of annual leave and going away for the weekend. Find some rest. Ask your parents if they can watch your kids for a day.

And don’t just do other stressful things with that day. Have some time on your own, rebuild, recharge – if you’re feeling stress in your ministry – you need to find a way to have some rest.

Here’s Elijah. He goes. He feels like dying, but he lies down and just sleeps. And then the angel comes and says, I’ve got some food for you, and he eats it, and then he goes back to sleep. Then the angel wakes him up again and says, Arise and eat. The journey is too great for you. And he arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food 40 days and nights.

Well, a little bit of rest can go a long way for you, and you find when you rest, your perspective on life is a lot different. You can come back right into that stressful situation with new energy and the ability to face those stressful things with energy. Take some time to rest.

I’m John North.

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