How to handle holiday stress.

Deal with stress before it deals with you.    

We need to figure out where stress comes from.  Ask, why is this happening to me?  

It is because we live in a fallen challenging world. 

John 16:33 (NLT)

I (Jesus) have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

1. Stress comes from relationships. 

God's solution is not to take away your trouble, but to give you peace in the trouble.

  

God wants you to be set free.  Sin has it's power in your secrets.  Find a Godly person to help you through your secrets.

  

Psalm 34:19 (NLT)

The righteous person faces many troubles,
    but the Lord comes to the rescue each time.

Hebrews 13:5 (ESV)

... he (God) has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

2. Stress is caused by a lack of time.

   

We need to discover our purpose, and prioritize our time accordingly. 

Daniel 5:25-27 (NLT)

²⁵ “This is the message that was written: Mene, mene, tekel, and Parsin. 

²⁶ This is what these words mean:

Mene means ‘numbered’—God has numbered the days of your reign (talking to a king) and has brought it to an end.

²⁷ Tekel means ‘weighed’—you have been weighed on the balances and have not measured up.  

²⁸ Parsin^[a] means ‘divided’—your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

3. Stress is caused by a lack of money.

Most of us don't have an earning problem, but a spending problem. 

1 Timothy 6:10 (NLT)

10 For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

The answer to stress is rest.  Rest is not sleep.  We look for rest in the wrong places.  We find our rest in God.  We must put our faith in God.  

Psalm 62:5-8  (NLT)

⁵ Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
    for my hope is in him.
⁶ He alone is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress where I will not be shaken.
⁷ My victory and honor come from God alone.
    He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.
⁸ O my people, trust in him at all times.
    Pour out your heart to him,
    for God is our refuge. 

What we are around gets in us. We are like sponges.  Sponges pulls in whatever is around it.  We must put ourselves into places where God's presence is. 

Matthew 11:28  (NLT)

28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Jeremiah 6:16 (NLT)

¹⁶ This is what the Lord says:
“Stop at the crossroads and look around.
    Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it.
Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls.    But you reply, ‘No, that’s not the road we want.

We don't need a new way, but we need God's way. 

1. We need to find our purpose and live accordingly.

Matthew 13:44 (NLT)

44 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.

  

2. We need to put first things first. 

Matthew 6:33  (NLT)

33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

When you go to the grocery store, you don't heap the cans on top of the eggs.  Order is important.  Put God first so everything else works out.

3. Keep your heart set on heaven not earth.

      

We've got to learn to quit back seat driving God. 

We need to get off the bench and get onto the field.  The world is lost, and God needs you to find it. 

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NLT)

16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 

17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 

18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Our faith does not come from what's going on around us, but what's going on in us.  We must fix our eyes on the eternal.  You'll never be fulfilled while sitting on the bench. 

The key to rest is a healthy, whole relationship with God.     

       

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