In My FeelingsSýnishorn

DAY 3 - Managing Stress & Worry

Sir David Attenborough has an amazing narrating voice. 

I’m expectantly waiting for the day we will be gifted with a tag-team narration with Morgan Freeman. 

I remember watching a documentary in which David Attenborough was talking about what he would call “creatures of the deep” then, he began talking about lobsters.  

Lobsters are pretty incredible creatures. They are extremely sensitive creatures growing inside an external hard shell.  

A lobster’s body experiences incredible stress when it is growing too large for its hard shell. 

Stress becomes a signal to grow. 

The lobster returns to a safe place under a rock, sheds it’s now small shell, and grows a new, more larger shell, then returns back to the ocean floor. 

Stress is very normal. 

I believe stress is healthy, within the right mindset.  

Stress is a signal to grow. 

In Philippians 4, we read Paul writing to the church in Philippi to be content. I’m not sure about you, but it’s easy to read passages of scripture and assume the author is writing while reclining in a peaceful setting. 

However, Paul wrote the book of Philippians while in prison. 

Biblical Commentators write that not only was Paul in prison, but there is a high chance that the prison cell where Paul was writing this Scripture was built with a sewage line running through the middle of the prison cell.  

Whatever you are facing right now, I hope you can agree you're holding your phone in a slightly better location than this. 

Paul continues, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” 

Paul knew how to reframe his environment & emotions. 

You can let your environment dictate your mood, or 

You can choose your mood to dictate your environment. 

Your mood is reflective of your food. 

Are you feeding yourself Scripture to feed your mood? 

Or are you letting whoever & whatever happens in your day determine this? 

Are you allowing 5 minutes on Instagram to control the direction of your mood? 

I love this thought from neuroscientist Dr. Caroline Leaf: 

“Did you really have a bad day or did you have 10-20 minutes where you let your thoughts run undisciplined which led you to a bad mood that you let carry you through your day.”  

The best way to combat stress is your ability to choose one thought over another. Do you run your day? or does the day run you? 

Today is your opportunity to choose to run to the Word of God to reframe your mindset & grow. 

Like the Lobster, what you are facing may come a size too big so we can grow into it. We can grow with our habits, mindset and our relationship with God. 

Senior Pastor Brian Houston said it best when he said: “Worry is a Trust Issue.” 

Ultimately, we need to surrender our stress & worry to God and give our trust to Him.  

Stress will tell you if you do more, have more, then you will have peace. 

However we can find confidence in Philippians 4:6, when we entrust our worries to Him rather than ourselves, the peace of God that transcends our understanding, will meet us. 

Questions:

(1) What is something you are stressed & worried about that you have been trying to manage on your own? 

(2) What are some areas of your life that you are experiencing stress that you would like to grow in? 

(3) What are THREE things you can do to intentionally grow in this area? 

(4) What is ONE verse we’ve read you can meditate on to reframe stress & worry in your day today?  

Prayer:

Dear God. Thank you that I’m not meant to do this life alone. I’m thankful that you are in control, and I am not. I’m thankful that although I might not understand right now, you are working everything together for my good & my growth. Amen.