You can listen to Ask The Pastor every weekday at 9:00am MST on 97.1FM Hope Radio KCMI! You can also listen and subscribe to Ask The Pastor in your favorite podcast feed. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music and most other podcast services.
This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Ben Clein, Jonathan Hernandez, and Gary Schick.
Gary Schick
So here guys is the question for today from one of our listeners. The individual writes, "I can't help but wonder if the cause of increased stress in so many people's lives, isn't the result of them thinking they don't need God. What does God have to say about stress? How can we address this topic biblically and give people real and eternal solutions? Jonathan, what do you think?
Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah, so I guess as we look through scripture, the word stress really doesn't pop up. But we see other things like anxiety or fear. Definitely, "Do not fear," shows up what 365 times I think, throughout scripture, and so we can look to some of those. I guess one of the scriptures that I was looking at was in Philippians 4:6, it says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer, petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to the Lord and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus." And so I think for me, stress has been something that really, burdened me for most of my life. You know, it's stress about the easiest and the smallest things to the biggest things. And you know, as we are, hopefully on the other side of COVID, I'm hoping we see a lot less stress in people's lives. But with this scripture, the thing I like, you know, really we need to present these things to God. "Okay, I'm struggling with the fear of COVID," or you know, whatever the fear is that we're struggling with. Our anxiety and those types of things, that we just take those to God and allow Him to just really, you know, cause it says, "guard your heart and your mind and allow Him to show us what we need to look to or look forward to." And then just finding things to help us deal with stress. Obviously, some worship music, just put on some worship music, you know, spend time worshiping or in the word. Those are definitely great areas to help reduce stress. And then also just look at, "Okay, why am I stressed?" Is it because of work? Do I have way too much stuff going on? And then just looking at those things that, "Okay, what can I take out of my life to help reduce stress?" And then just finding, for me, finding something extracurricular, like, I play disc golf. And so just finding a place that I can just go and relax, and a lot of times it's usually just talking to God as I'm throwing around Frisbees. So yeah! Good
Gary Schick
Good! Ben?
Ben Cline
Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I was just thinking about, you know, the fact that that word stress is not actually mentioned in the Bible either, but you know, we definitely see other mentions of it. The word trouble is in there, talks about that as well, Jesus talks about that. But I think there's different areas where we maybe, typically experience stress in our lives, and Pastor Jonathan was talking about some of those things. You know finances, our jobs, our relationships, illness can cause a lot of stresses, hardships and trials and things like that. But one of the places that I was reading about, the fact that we're supposed to not be worried about those things in life, but to be relying on Christ, is actually in Matthew 6:25. It says, "For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life as to what you'll eat or what you will drink, nor for your body as to what you'll put on." And then it says, "Is not life more than just food and the body more than clothing?" So the example that's used there is, you know, the stresses that we experience because we're worried about those physical things in life, but then he goes on and he gives the example of God taking care of His creation. The creation that we can look out at and see. And so in verse 26 it says, "Look at the birds of the air that they do not sew nor reap nor gather into barns. And yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?" Then in verse 27 it says, "And who of you by being worried, can add a single hour to his life?" That's a question that I need to have going on in my mind over and over again, because I think quite the opposite happens when we worry, is that we maybe are taking years off of our lives. But then in verse 28 it says, "And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all of his glory clothed himself, like one of these. But if God so clothed the grass and the fields, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you?" And then he says, "You have little faith." You know, what an interesting perspective as we think about the worries and the troubles and the stresses that we have in our life. God wants us to have faith in Him, and He wants us to be concentrated on Him.
Gary Schick
What a relevant, couple of passages you guys dug into. I mean, Jonathan with, "Have no anxiety about anything," boom! Right, spot on scripture for that. And then as you were talking, Ben, I was thinking, "and did Jesus mention about, 'and do not worry about gas prices?" But I mean, He was addressing that because He was talking about the everyday concerns. Where's the food gonna come from? Where are the clothes gonna come from? And today, you know, where's the money for the gas tank gonna come from? And here's the thing our listener, you know, I think in some ways, right? Yes, our culture has drifted from God and that has created stresses, but stress is part of life for unbelievers and believers and we all face it. I think the difference though, and we've been talking about it without even really maybe recognizing it, is the fact that as believers we have some resources to draw on that the unbeliever doesn't. And the thing that we've been talking about today, the name of the show is Ask the Pastor, but what are we pastors asking? And to answer your question, we're asking God's word. And so the scripture is so abundant. And again, you're right. The specific word stress may not have shown up in any of the translations we are reading. It might show up in some translation, but the concept of worries, concerns anxieties, and not only specific scriptures, but I mean, story after story in the Bible takes us to God's people going through some really stressful stuff and how God carried them through. This morning in Men's Bible study, we were talking about the life of Joseph, and talk about stress. He was thrown in a pit and sold into slavery, you know? And how faithfully God carried him through. As I was kind of thinking about this question last night, just to, I don't know if we ever mentioned it to you listeners, but basically we get the question the day before and we kind of all go home and think about it. And it's really neat how God puts together our answers the next day when we come together. But a verse that has just been so meaningful to me so many times in stressful situations: 2 Corinthians 1:8-9. The apostle Paul writes, "We do not want you to be uninformed brothers about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure so that we despaired even of life. Indeed in our hearts, we felt that very sentence of death; but this happened so that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead." So Paul doesn't give us the nitty gritty details of what was the stress, apparently the Corinthians knew something of what stress he was under in Asia. But he tells us that he would "despair even of life." And then he gives this wonderful perspective, "Yeah, we felt like we were even under the sentence of death, but this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but that we might learn in a sense to rely on God who raises the dead." And maybe you're out there just gasping for breath saying, "I don't know what to do." Time to turn it over to God friends, and to rely on the promises of God's word. You know, another great verse, Isaiah 41:10, "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you and uphold you with my righteous right hand." That's a verse I memorized a long time ago, going through some, what were called, Navigator's Material, they're a great ministry out of Colorado. If you will lay verses like that aside in your heart, God, the Holy Spirit can bring them back to you when you are in crisis mode. When you are under stress, just remember, "Hey, I am with you says the Lord." You know, Jesus words, "Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble at heart, and you'll find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Jesus wants us to give the big burdens to Him and just asks us to be faithful today with what He has for us to do. I think we so often get so ahead of ourselves. My worry is, I don't know about you guys, there are things mostly down the road, things that just don't usually happen, you know? And then the real things that maybe we should be stressed about, we never saw coming. But God gets them through, gets us through. I think another, and I think Jonathan addressed this so well, was just the importance of prayer. You know, for 1 Peter 5:7, "Cast all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you." Romans 8:26 says, "But in the same way, the spirit helps us in our weakness. We don't know what we ought to pray, but the spirit himself intercedes with groans, that words can't express." And then finally, and in a sense, our listener was doing this by asking us the question. But I think we do it in a much more personal way within the setting of a small group, Bible study, or the fellowship we have at church. And that is to share our burdens with one another in Christ. Galatians 6:2 says, "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ," which of course is to love one another. And so, by all means listener, don't feel guilty that you're stressed, stress happens. Stress is part of life. It's really more a question of, where do we channel that? Do we take it to God in prayer? Do we remind ourselves of the truths of God's word? Do we share our burdens with others to pray for us? Do we take the opportunity, as Jonathan put it, to just get outside and enjoy some of God's green earth and fresh air? Those are all healing things in stressful times. And in a way, praise God that we are in stressful situations, because that means probably that we're in situations where God can use us. I mean, look at the life of Paul, so much of it was stressful and yet God filled him with renewed joy every day. And may He do it for us too!