Wednesday 7 February 2024

TURNING STRESS BACKWARDS

Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in time of trouble.

I heard someone say that if you spell ‘stressed’ backwards it says desserts! I think I’d rather have desserts, wouldn't you? As I thought about those two words I realised how one makes us miserable, whereas the other brings most of us pleasure, if we like sweet things.😊

Apparently a certain amount of stress is healthy but when it’s constant it can cause many of our sicknesses and diseases so we need to find out from the Holy Spirit how to turn our stress backwards on itself and produce something sweet out of it.

It can happen when we’re in a situation we think we can’t control, or when we have too much to do. It might be caused by feeling threatened or under pressure but we have to try to remember we’re not actually alone dealing with any given situation. 

If we can learn to recognise our own trigger points we can take them to the Holy Spirit and ask Him first of all to steady us up, to remember we’ve not to struggle on trying to deal with things on our own, but realise He is actually here helping us deal with whatever the difficulty is.

The other day I was getting stressed out with one of the men laying our carpet, and I knew I had to get on top of it so I went in the bedroom, shut the door and told the Lord how I felt. I said, “I’m getting really wound up about this Lord and I can’t do anything to change it so I’m giving the whole thing to You. Help me rise above it, and get it in perspective and have the right attitude.”  I didn’t come out floating on air, but I did feel better knowing I’d shared it with the Lord and He would take care of it. In the end God did turn it around and all is well! Thank You Lord.

The trouble is, we can get all caught up in the moment! No doubt we all have different trigger points and what upsets me wont upset you, but they’re still real for all of us. 

God says He is our Helper, our very present help in trouble, so we can call on Him literally all the time when we need to. So can I encourage each one of us to not struggle on in our own strength, because God never called us to try and cope. He said to call on the Holy Spirit to strengthen us, to help us keep things in perspective, to know He is holding us steady and allow His peace to flow into us. He said He gives us His victory - over our reactions, over our anxieties, over whatever has us stressed. 

I know it’s not easy, but if we keep practicing, we will end up with some lovely ‘desserts’. God bless you.😊


Photo by Kim Daniels on Unsplash

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