Overcoming StressSample

What happens to us when stress overwhelms us? 

So, as we talked about in day one, we can often believe the lie that stress is normal. Everyone feels stressed, right? And while a little stress is inevitable and sometimes can even be beneficial—you don’t have to let stress rule, or ruin, your life. 

See, sometimes, stress can be a good thing, like when it causes you to avoid making an irresponsible or dangerous choice. For example, a little stress before a test is good if it helps motivate you to study. But that stress gets out of control when you can’t stop studying, or can’t focus, or start being consumed by it. 

But, how do you know when stress has gone too far? Your body will tell you. Trust us. Our bodies go through some pretty rough things when we’re all tangled up in stress, just like we learned from the drawing video yesterday. 

You may not have even known you were stressed until you watched that, right? Stress is sneaky like that—especially in our world today where we wear words like “busy” and “stressed” like a badge of honor. But that’s not how God intended us to live. In our culture where we’re striving to do more, be more, and know more, we’ve become so focused on what we can do that we can often forget what He can do.

God can handle every single one of our needs. He can fight for us if we only choose to be still, to know He is God, and to trust in Him to provide His peace. 

So, how do we overcome stress? We’ve got to start thinking of ourselves less. We’ve got to find stillness. And we’ve got to start allowing God to be God and to stop trying to live our lives on our own. 

Challenge: Think about all of the things you’re stressed about right now. How many of them are related to what you’re trying to do in your own strength? Pray that God would help you surrender your stress. Pray that He would help you be still and know that He is God. Spend time listening to Him in silence today.