What is your response to stress?

What is your response to stress?

Excerpted from of All Stressed Up and Everywhere to Go! Solutions to De-Stressing Your Life and Recovering Your Sanity

© Copyright 2011 by Relationship Resources. All Rights Reserved.

We must lay to rest the myth that if we are truly spiritual we will never be upset or feel emotional pain when under stress. God’s Word makes it clear that it is normal to feel distress. Study the lives of Jesus, Paul and David for examples.

The spiritual person does feel distress when under intense stress. Consider what Jesus said in Matthew 26:36-38: “Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane,… and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.’”

Here are a few examples of how you may experience distress:

1.  Your best friend broke trust by telling others something you shared in confidence. You may feel angry, sad, hurt, wounded, and/or betrayed.

2.  Your computer crashes and you lose all your data. You may feel frustrated, baffled, dismayed, unhappy, and/or furious.

3.  You expected your vacation to be restful, but it seemed like everything went wrong. You may feel disappointed, discouraged, and/or frustrated.

David often talked about his distresses. Psalm 31:9 is one of many examples, when he wrote, “Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress…”

Blessings on you as you get to know God more intimately,

Gaylyn Williams, author of The Surprising Joy of Exploring God’s Heart: A Daily Adventure with 365 of His Names