Stress Relief for Life

THE STORY OF Jesus’s feeding the five thousand is a manual of sorts on how to trust the power of God in your life.

When Jesus heard what had happened to John, he left in a boat and went to a lonely place by himself. But the crowds heard about it and followed him on foot from the towns. When he arrived, he saw a great crowd waiting. He felt sorry for them and healed those who were sick.

When it was evening, his followers came to him and said, “No one lives in this place, and it is already late. Send the people away so they can go to the towns and buy food for themselves.”

But Jesus answered, “They don’t need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

They said to him, “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish.”

Jesus said, “Bring the bread and the fish to me.” Then he told the people to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish and, looking to heaven, he thanked God for the food. Jesus divided the bread and gave it to his followers, who gave it to the people. All the people ate and were satisfied. Then the followers filled twelve baskets with the leftover pieces of food. There were about five thousand men there who ate, not counting women and children.

—MATTHEW 14:13–21, NCV

Here we have Jesus and the disciples doing the impossible: feeding more than five thousand people with just two fish and five loaves of bread. Can you imagine what it must have been like for the disciples in this situation? They must have wondered how in the world they managed to be involved in something so amazing. If the truth were told, the disciples didn’t really do anything special to accomplish the miracle. Basically they passed out bread and fish. That’s it. The disciples did what they knew how to do, and Jesus did what He knew how to do. The disciples were mere waiters who delivered a meal. Jesus handled everything else.

The relevance of this miracle for your life is clear. You’ve been challenged to make some radical changes, some of which seem literally impossible. The prospect of living the new story in the situations that scare you the most or of making the lifestyle changes that will lead to a less-stressed life might seem pretty far-fetched at this point, kind of like feeding five thousand people with two fish and five loaves of bread. You need to know that all God expects when you are faced with embracing radical change is for you to do what you know how to do. He is responsible for the rest. You do what you know how to do; God will do what He knows how to do.

You have dedicated the last three weeks to learning some things you can do to help you live a less-stressed life. You can’t forget to implement what you know how to do. No matter how stressful life gets or how hard it is to implement your personal stress-management system, you have to be diligent to continually put the concepts you have learned into practice. For example, you can’t quit practicing your relaxation exercises or ignore your personal system when you are in stress-inducing situations. You can’t ignore the information you have received about creating margin in your schedule, exercising, or finding supportive relationships. It’s essential that you do what you know how to do in order to live a less-stressed life.

If you are willing to be a wise steward of the information you have learned in this program, God will honor your commitment to the less-stressed life, and He will empower you by the Holy Spirit to follow through for the long haul. In the end, a miracle will take place in your life similar to the one the disciples experienced. Trust that. Trust that God will honor your best effort with His miraculous intervention.

Does God really do that? Does He really respond to our best efforts with the miraculous? I can tell you with confidence as a believer myself and as a professional who works with people from all walks of life that God always responds to our faithfulness to do what we know how to do. Sometimes He doesn’t respond on the timeline that we would like, but in the end He always rewards our faithfulness with His activity in our life. Your job is to embrace the radical changes this program calls for with a firm awareness that ultimately God will lead you to the less-stressed life. It might not happen tomorrow or next week, but it will happen. You do what you know how to do, and don’t quit doing it. God will take care of the rest.

JASON’S STORY

Jason was a young man with a bright future. He had a good job, was married to a beautiful Christian woman, and was well liked in his community. Jason also had a dirty little secret: he was a methamphetamine addict who had been hooked on the highly addictive drug for two years. During his first visit to my office, he spoke freely about his experience in the grip of meth. He would work for weeks, even months at a time, and maintain all his major responsibilities without a problem. But when he felt meth calling him, his normal existence would cease immediately.

Usually after long, torturous internal battles, Jason would disappear for weeks at a time. He would leave his normal life and enter a crazy drug world that included weeklong parties with people he didn’t even know. He described finding himself in strange houses or hotel rooms, high on methamphetamine. Then, as quickly as he had fallen into the trap of meth, he would find his way out. He would drive home and try to undo the damage wrought by his absence.

This cycle went on for two long years, and Jason’s life was literally falling apart at the seams. His wife was at a loss for how to help him; he couldn’t keep a job and was falling deeper in debt.

Early in our counseling sessions we had identified Jason’s triggers for relapse. He felt the call of meth when he was stressed out. In a weird way, meth was his coping system for stress. Interestingly enough, Jason continued to struggle with his meth cycles even after he understood the addictive pattern he was in and that his meth use actually caused more stress in the end. He was stuck, and so was I. I had given him all the tools I had at my disposal as a therapist, but Jason was still a meth addict.

Although Jason was close to giving up on himself, his wife refused to concede defeat. She continued to pray, even when Jason went on yet another binge. She begged God to do a work in his life that Jason couldn’t do, she couldn’t do, and even I, the counselor, couldn’t do. Even when she felt like she couldn’t go on anymore, she prayed.

Near the tail end of one of Jason’s binges, his wife went to church for a prayer meeting. At one point she walked up to the pastor and poured out her heart. Sensing that she was broken beyond belief, the pastor called the whole church to pray for Jason. Then a funny thing happened to Jason.

At that very moment he was lying down on the couch in his living room, about to crash after days without sleep. He was at the end of his rope and was convinced he would be a meth addict until he died. But in those moments God reached down into Jason’s life and broke the chains of his addiction. Jason described it as a physical sensation that radiated through his body. He knew in that instance that the power of God had just visited him in a miraculous way.

Until that point, Jason had done everything he knew to do to break free of the grip drugs had on his life. His wife had done everything she knew to do to support him in his recovery. I had done all I could do from a professional standpoint to help him. That’s when God came into the picture and honored Jason’s heart.

Let me be clear: Jason wasn’t done with his share of the work after his experience with God. We continued to meet for months after that to equip him to deal with his stress more effectively. He went to weekly recovery meetings at Narcotics Anonymous, and he started attending church again. But it was encountering the power of God that showed Jason he could be free from his addiction.

GOD DID IT!

Jason eventually beat methamphetamine, one of the most addictive drugs on the streets. But guess what? Jason didn’t make this happen, and neither did I as his counselor. Jason just did what he knew how to do. He responded to the call of God in his living room, he came to counseling to learn how to manage his stress, and he went to Narcotics Anonymous meetings. That’s it. God did the rest. Jason didn’t get himself off meth and into church. God did.

Do you want to live the less-stressed life? If you are ready to embrace radical change by confronting the environments, situations, and lifestyle changes that scare you the most, you have to trust the power of God and expect the miraculous in your life. Twenty days ago you probably couldn’t imagine living in the peace of God. You couldn’t imagine living a less-stressed life.

But if you continue to practice what you’ve learned in this program, you’ll look back one day and say, “Look what God did. I’m living the life I always dreamed about.” And you’ll know in those moments that it wasn’t you who brought you to peace. If you were totally ready or capable of embracing radical change, you would get the credit, but that’s not the point. You’ll never be totally prepared to engage the new model in the situations that scare you the most. You’ll never be totally ready to implement the lifestyle changes you want to make. You just do what you know how to do. You have the skills now. God will do the rest.

For your assignment today I want you to get intentional about inviting the power of God into your stress-management system. I’ve included a worksheet that will help you think through this process. I want to encourage you to write a prayer thanking God for His activity in your life. Get specific by thanking God for helping you embrace radical change in the environments, situations, and relationships in which it seems most difficult to implement your personal system.

I also want you to praise God in advance for empowering you by the Holy Spirit to make the tough lifestyle choices that will enable you to live the less-stressed life over the long haul. I’m asking you to write down your prayer for one very specific reason: it is always helpful to have a written record of what you ask God for. It helps us understand just how faithful He really is and how willing He is to respond to the cries of our hearts.

One day in the future, if you continue to do what you know how to do, you will look down at your prayer and realize that the power of God moved into your stress process and that you are living a miracle. It might happen overnight, or it might develop over a series of weeks, months, or even years. But in the end God’s going to do what He knows how to do.

ASSIGNMENT

• Complete the Inviting the Power of God worksheet.

• Practice passive or active relaxation for twenty minutes.

• Log thoughts, feelings, and behavior three times a day after breakfast, after lunch, and before bedtime using the stress log.

• Complete all seven columns of the stress log and implement your personal system for managing stress when you begin to feel stressed.

INVITING THE POWER OF GOD

Use this worksheet to write a prayer to God in which you thank Him in advance for empowering you to embrace the radical change necessary to live a less-stressed life. As you write, be sure to look back at the Going All In exercise so you can be specific about the areas in which you need God to work the most.

After you write your prayer, put it in a prominent place in your house (i.e., on your dresser, the refrigerator, or your bathroom mirror). Every time you see your prayer, thank God again for His very specific activity in your life. Remember, if you are faithful to do what you know how to do, God will be faithful to do what He knows how to do.

STRESS LOG

This stress log will help you practice becoming more aware of the emotions you experience when your stress begins. It should be completed daily beginning on Day Six of the Stress Relief for Life program. If you encounter a stressful experience during your day, fill out the entire row under the appropriate time period. If you don’t have a stressful experience, complete only the first four columns.