A Heart Untroubled

As we think about those things that bring stress in our lives, it would be dumb to mention this one!  I've had a difficult week this week.  A very challenging situation came to an end in a meeting and it was stressful.  However, it came and went, but what was the biggest battle for me?  It was practicing the wrong things afterwards!   What do I mean?  Well I am quite sure I am not the only one who practices or rehearses things in my head over and over after something like that, am I?.  "I could have done this... I should have said that..." But all that is simply stressful!  What is past is done, and today I have a choice about what how I practice.  I can practice (rehearse) the negative 'shoulda, woulda, coulda's' or I can practice ( do) the presence of God.  I can sit there and think about all the ways I could have behaved or worded something differently, but in the end, it's a much more peace-filled path when we look to Jesus inst...

In continuing my thoughts on stress, or rather how to deal with stress,  I want to think about the promises God has given us through his word - two verses in particular. Nehemiah 8:10  For the joy of the Lord is my strength and Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. The word 'strength' in the first verse there means: a fortified place; figuratively, a defence: — force, fort fortress, rock, strengthen, strong (hold).  It refers to a place or means of safety, protection, refuge,  fastness, harbour. When we focus on the joy of the Lord we find that we are fortified, strengthened and we find refuge, a safe harbour for our souls.  When we contemplate the fact that God is talking all the factors around us and weaving them together for good.  We can rest in that safe place.   The bible and the gospel message were not intended to be complex and only underst...

So as we continue thinking about stress and how to avoid it as a Christian,  we need to remind ourselves that what we water/feed is what grows in our life.  As a believer, we have a choice every day what we allow to take root in our hearts, and what we root out.   When fear and insecurity take root in your heart, they will always result in stress, torment, and discouragement. The bible tells us we are to take our thoughts captive, and it's easy to pull up a plant when it has no root at all.  Once something develops a root system, it get's harder to remove. Colossians 2:7 (TPT) Your spiritual roots go deeply into his life as you are continually infused with strength, encouraged in every way. For you are established in the faith you have absorbed and enriched by your devotion to him! We need to be rooted in Christ. The dictionary definition of 'rooted' is: established deeply & firmly; and Strong's Concordance says: cause to strike root, to strengthen with root...

One of the biggest causes of stress in our lives can actually be our own inability to take responsibility for our actions, emotions and responses.  For example, have you ever got cross with someone and (either out loud or in your heart) you've said 'It's their fault I lost my temper. They wound me up!" Our human nature wants to blame others, blame circumstances or even blame God, but when we ascribe blame to external people or things, what we do is remove the possibility of being able to do anything spiritually productive about it.  This will always bring about stress.   I remember days when I blamed my husband for my own failings, it was stressful, because I couldn't change his behaviour.   This was a cycle in my life and very time I did it, I felt worse.  One day the Lord spoke to me and told me to stop, that I was the one responsible for my emotions and I could chose to walk after the Spirit and not the flesh!  This wasn't at all what I wanted ...

I've begun sharing a little on how to deal with stress.  Last week we spoke about not focussing on ourselves as we cannot control or change many things.  We are not sufficient to manage our own lives however we try; we need to focus on Jesus. Today I want to speak about what and how we value things and how this can cause us stress.  In Luke 12:34 we are told our hearts are where our treasure is.  This means that our hearts go to where the thing we value is.  I like the way the Passion Translation puts it Where you deposit your treasure, that is where your thoughts will turn to—and your heart will long to be there also. Stress can be caused when we put too high a value or importance on something (treasure).  Things can easily be lost or damaged, often outside of our own control. Holding 'things' too tightly can cause us stress when we do not have them (or if God tells us to give them away!) Paul the Apostle says in Philippians 4:11 that he had learned to be ...

So, have you ever been stressed?  Everyone has the potential to get stressed; maybe over money, relationship challenges, others complicating simple matters, forgetting stuff, gossip, change and many, many other things.   However, stress is not mandatory and can be avoided it if we follow what the bible teaches: There's a few simple things that word tells us that will help us remain at peace in a stress-filled world and today I want to start a little series on how to avoid stress. The first, and probably one of the most challenging ways to avoid being stressed, is  "Don't be focussed on yourself!" That may seem strange but the bible teaches that pride is at the heart of all our trials.  Proverbs 13:10 says that " Only through pride comes contention " Only refers to ' no one or nothing more besides; solely.' Pride can be defined as  a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements Contention is the Hebrew word 'm...

There are certain things that most Christians would say they want - things like peace, to hear God's voice, to feel loved,  and that sort of thing, but whatever it is, people seem to be waiting on God to provide these things in our lives for us.   This verse in 2 Peter 1:2 says "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord" We're not waiting for God to give us peace, but when we know  (learn, experience, recognize  and understand)  God the Father and Jesus then his grace, his love, his peace increase in our lives.  Our confident trust in his word, and our desire to love and serve him in return for his wonderful goodness and kindness increase too. Equally when we don't know God, these things are diminished in our lives.   The things like grace and peace that we desire to live in and experience on a daily basis, are not given in the sense that God is deciding when and how to pass them out to us, bu...