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Taking
God at His Word
by
Dr. Morris H. Chapman
God's Solution for Stress
November 20, 2001
Psalm 23:2 (NAS) "He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters."
Are you all stressed up with no place to go? Americans are stressed out regardless of where they may reside. Many individuals are suffering from acute stress as a result of the attack on America. We not only face the threat of additional terrorist attacks, but now we are facing the threat of anthrax anxiety. Stress is serious and we need a solution for it.
What is stress? The Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling describes stress as a debilitating response that occurs when we judge a situation with the belief that an adequate resource is unavailable to give us hope to cope with the threatening circumstances. Therefore, the intensity of our response to stress is directly proportional to whether we have available to us a resource with which to cope with the situation. So, what is the solution for stress?
As Christians, God is the adequate source that supplies us with the hope to cope in stressful situations. Moreover, God gives us His solution in Psalm 23:2, the Psalm to which America continues to turn for comfort and consolation in these troubled times. With the responsibility of the shepherd for his sheep as the background, God gives us a two-part solution to stress: As God's sheep, we must rest in Christ's presence and rely on His provision.
Let's look at each of these two parts. First, the shepherd makes the sheep have a quiet time with him at the beginning of the day. Sheep are by nature like small children. They are resistant to rest. Yet, it is during this quiet time with the shepherd that sheep's wool grows fastest and their bodies grow strongest. However, we are backward in our behavior. We get up, shower, dress, down a cup of coffee while choking down a piece of toast, rush off to pursue the plans of the day and return home to rest. Our Shepherd says, "Reverse your priorities!" Resting with the Shepherd occurs at the beginning of the day, not at the end. Therefore, God says the first part of His solution for stress is to have a quiet time with Him before the day begins.
Second, not only must we rest in Christ's presence, we must rely on Christ's provision. God tells us in verse two He makes us lie down in green pastures. Sheep eat grass only, but not all grass is the same. In the Middle East, the shepherd must prevent his sheep from eating goat grass. Goat grass is green and looks good to the sheep, but it makes the sheep sick by disrupting their digestive system, thus stifling their wool's growth. The shepherd must provide true grass. Christ provides us with true grass: the Word of God. God's Word is the good grass on which we must feed in times of stress. During these stressful times, we may seek solace from journalists, news commentators, friends, family, and those dedicated to the helping professions. However, let us not forget to feed on the words of our Master, who is "our help in ages past and our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home."
My friends, let us undertake a seven-day adventure together and spend fifteen minutes a day alone with God and His Word. Recent surveys indicate that approximately seven minutes a day is the average time Christians invest with God. Let us venture to double this average by committing to the following three steps for fifteen minutes a day for the next week.
- First, stop. Stop the routine of continuous activities and go to a quiet place without the distractions of radio or television. Christ is there. Be still and know He is God.
- Second, look. Open up the evergreen truth of God's words and feed on them. Jeremiah 15:16 tells us, "Thy words were found and I ate them, and Thy words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Thy name, O LORD God of hosts."
- Third, listen. Allow God to speak to you and listen for what He says. Jesus tells us in John 10:27, "My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow Me; . . ."
What benefit will we experience by taking time to be with Christ? What benefit will we enjoy by feeding on His Word? The stresses we are facing today fragment us emotionally, physically and spiritually. We need time to care for our souls and our bodies. We will experience wholeness in our fragmented lives.
For example, a very busy, successful businessman was on a safari in Africa. He hired a group of nationals from a local village to carry all the supplies. He was paying them by the day for their services. On the first day's journey, they covered more territory that they had planned. The businessman said to himself, "We have progressed further that we thought we would. If we continue at this fast pace, we will not only arrive early but I won't have to pay as much for the helpers' services."
The next morning, the nationals were not packed and ready to move on. They were sitting and standing around. Not one of them made an effort to pick up supplies and move on. The businessman tried to encourage the whole group to move on. No one responded. The businessman attempted to motivate them one by one. Each one refused to move but remained in one place resting, eating and quietly talking to one another.
The businessman asked the village leader why they would not move on. The leader responded, "Yesterday, we covered too much ground and today they are letting their souls catch up with their bodies."
We must allow our souls to catch up with our bodies by spending quiet time with Jesus Christ and feeding on His rejuvenating words. By spending intentional time with Christ, stress need not be debilitating, but instead, stress serves us by directing us to Jesus Christ, our unwavering and unchanging resource of hope.
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