Oursource Your Worry

Hi There,

Thanks for stopping in.

It’s Labor Day weekend here in the U.S., which means Monday is a holiday. Woo-hoo!  (Can you say “woo-hoo” in a devotional?).

Anyway...I’ve been thinking about how hard we work and the stresses we carry. So I did some quick research and here’s what I found from the Foundation for Integrated Research in Mental Health, and from the American Psychological Association:

* Globally, more than 3 out of 5 doctor visits are for stress related problems.

* Globally, 23% of women executives and professionals, and 19% of their male peers, say they feel super-stressed.

* Forty-three percent of adults suffer adverse health effects from stress.

* Two-thirds of all office visits to family physicians are due to stress-related symptoms.

* Sixty-four percent of Americans say they are taking steps to reduce stress in their lives.

* Stress is linked to the six leading causes of death--heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide.

Here’s something for you: 85 percent of diseases have stress-related factors.

How stressed are you?

Just look at what’s going on in our world today: income-squeezing energy prices; tens of thousands of jobs being cut; millions of houses being lost; wealth shrinkage among the poor and middle class; everything costs more: food, clothes, transportation, energy, etc.

You leave the house early in the morning to fight your way through bumper to bumper traffic to do a job to earn money to provide for your family so at the end of the month you’ll consider it a major victory if you just break even and don’t get any farther behind.

Then you get into a nasty downward spiral where you lie awake obsessing about it at night, and wake up exhausted in the morning so tired you have to peel your eyes open and tape your eyelids in place, and go through your day like you’re one of the extras from the movie The Living Dead.

Hey, listen, that’s no way to live, and I read something a couple of days ago that helped me that I think will help you. During one of my spiritual focusing times this week, I read Psalm 25:1,2,

“Lord, I give myself to you; my God, I trust you.”

I know it’s a short sentence that might not look like much at first, but wait until you discover what the Hebrew word “trust” (batach) means.

It means to have confidence in, to be secure, to be confident.

A person who trusts (batach) has a sense of well-being and security.

Face it, if more of us had those feelings—if we felt secure and well—then we would have fewer stress related problems, don’t you think? I do.

I find it interesting that in the Hebrew, the word “batach” means, “unconcerned.”

How many pages of paper would you fill if you listed all of your concerns?

Care for another Hebrew word study lesson? Regarding the word “batach”, the stress (no pun intended) is on the FEELING aspect not the INTELLECTUAL aspect of trust. Isn’t that cool?

God wants you to be unconcerned emotionally (stress-free) and to have no worries. It’s true.

How? Why? Because he’s in charge—he’s able, capable, and in control. You do your part and he’ll do his part. Example: his part was to part the Red Sea, Moses’ part was to step forward; we do have a part to play.

Do your thing, then God will do his thing; be faithful, be obedient, follow him, rest, and let the pieces fall where they may; be unconcerned—delegate / outsource your worrying to God.

So, on this Labor Day weekend, please give yourself the gift of a few minutes to think about God and what he’s able to do in your life and with your life. Promise?

I’ll leave you with this beloved promise:

“Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest,” Matthew 11:28,—Jesus.

Dedicated to Your Spiritual Freedom,

Lynell

August 30, 2008 | Permalink | del.icio.us | StumbleUpon | | |