Taking the Stress Out of Our Lives

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:4-8, ESV)
We live in stressful times, no doubt about it. Just ask anyone about how busy they are or how stressed out they are and they will be quick to tell you about their stress-filled lives. The problem with stress is that it robs us of the freedom we have in Jesus Christ, it mars our relationships with others and even reduces our productivity. I believe that Christians have lived in stressful situations since the beginning of the church. But notice the beautiful passage in Philippians chapter four and how it reduces the stress in our lives, almost immediately. Rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. When shall I rejoice? Always. The Christian rejoices in each and every situation, whether the world sees it as a good situation or a bad situation. This particular teaching of Christ is so important that the Spirit asked the apostle Paul to repeat the word. Rejoice. Again I will say, Rejoice. That means it is extremely important for Christians to be filled with rejoicing at all times. Coupled with the teaching about rejoicing is the encouragement to be reasonable. We live in unreasonable times. People in countries all over the world are so filled with self that they have become unreasonable. If you think I am wrong, just consider the daily news. Unreasonableness is a mark of our world, our generation. That is why it is so important to be reasonable. Not only are we to be reasonable, we are to let that reasonableness be known to everyone, not just a few. We need to be reasonable with our spouses, with our children, with our aging parents, with our friends. We are to be reasonable with those who serve us in our communities, in restaurants, in stores. When’s the last time you “ripped a strip” with a waiter or waitress, with a clerk in a store? When was the last time you acted unreasonably when you received less than good service? And when we act unreasonable, it upsets us. We become victims of our own unreasonableness. We carry bitterness in our hearts, we nurse the hurt we believe we received because of the carelessness or attitude of someone else.
Are you anxious about anything? Anxiety increases because we have become unreasonable. We then forget that the Lord is close by, He is “at hand.” The best antidote for anxiety is prayer. Do we really pray? Do we really trust God to care for us, even in small things? Remember when Jesus raised Lazarus? He prayed before He raised His friend and in that prayer He thanked God for hearing Him, letting us know that God always hears Him. God hears Jesus right now as He continues to intercede on our behalf. He is close. He knows our every thought, our every anxiety. By praying, with thanksgiving for all He continues to do for us, we lay every care on Him and He deals with our anxiety. Supplication. That is an interesting term. That’s a bit stronger than just asking. I am reminded of Jesus’ parable about the man who went to bed, but the neighbor had guests and needed some bread, so he continued knocking on the door until he got the man up. Supplication is that kind of knocking and patiently believing that God will supply our every need, like knocking on the door of a friend’s house at midnight, believing he will get up and loan or give us what we need. If we pray like this with faith, our anxiety will be dealt with and the peace of Jesus Christ will guard our hearts. Against what? Against the voice of Satan trying to get us to think that God hasn’t heard our prayers or that God won’t answer our prayers favorably. You know the old cop out, “Well it must have been God’s will that He didn’t . . .” God loves His children and He will never withhold anything that His children need. And we need the peace of Jesus Christ.
If we will follow the injunctions of the Lord in the passage above, we will be able to think about things that are just, pure, lovely, of good report, excellent, commendable, things that are deserving of praise. And this is precisely what Christians need to be doing in times that are filled with stress, with uncertainty, with real wars and with the threat of more wars. God will guard our hearts. He will give us peace, peace that others cannot understand. Even Satan will be confused at the peace that we hold in our hearts, because he desperately wants the citizens of the Kingdom of God to be doubters, bitter, distressed and disenchanted followers of Christ. But if we live our lives under the blood of Jesus, life incarnadine, we will certainly be filled with rejoicing and be a shining light to a world that is groping about in the darkness, a world that is filled with fear and stress.

Maintaining the Unity of the Spirit

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ( Ephesians 4:1-3, ESV)
"I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me." (John 17:20-21, ESV)
A religious fanatic, a government sympathizer, some low class menial workers, these are the men that Jesus chose to turn the world upside down. It wasn’t these men who turned the world upside down, it was Jesus Christ and the message of peace that He brought to a broken world that did it. True, Jesus said there would be divisions in families because of faith in Him, but there was to be no division among the members of the family of God. But there is division among the Lord’s people and we try to brush it aside as “a necessary evil” when we defend our positions about anything and everything. Do we have an opinion? You bet we do. If you don’t have one yet, the news media on TV will encourage you to get on-line and cast your vote on whatever nonsense is currently the fad. We have opinions about health, about wealth, about politics, about world politics and about religion. What puzzles me is the wealth of opinions many have when they have no idea in this world about a particular subject. For instance, should Tibet be free? Have you ever read the history of that country? Do you know about the violations of human rights prior to the Chinese entering that country? Is it a country? We could ask questions all day long and I won’t give you my opinion about the matter, because I don’t really know what the answer is.
But my point is not Tibet. My point is division among brothers and sisters. Division is wrong, it is sinful and there is no way to sugar coat it. Many have made their understanding of doctrine a test of fellowship. Is that right? To be sure, there are some things that can never be compromised. Take Jesus Christ, for an example. Did Jesus come as God and take on human form? According to John’s second letter, to deny that God came in the flesh is a reason not to associate with a person who holds the belief that He didn’t come in the flesh. “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.” (2John 1:7, ESV) That’s pretty clear to me. But I have heard folks use the verses that follow to justify disassociating with Christians who hold differences about other things in scripture that don’t seem that straight forward. “Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works." ( 2John 1:8-11, ESV) It seems to me that the teaching John refers to is this: Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came down from heaven and became a human, took on flesh. Anyone who does not abide in that teaching will lose God, but those of us who hold to that teaching have the Father and the Son.
It is so disheartening to see the world of Christianity so disunited, so broken. Christ’s body was broken that we might be one, be whole. If the world could see us united in love, surely they would hate us more for standing firm for Jesus or they would welcome the light and move toward faith. Living life incarnadine means dying to all of my pride, even when my pride says I know better than you or someone else what the Bible teaches. God who is Supreme asks His people to come and reason with Him."Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” ( Isaiah 1:18, ESV) God, who is pure and holy and righteous, asks His people, who are sinful, to come and reason with Him. Can we do any less with a brother or sister who disagrees with us? Let us understand that there are beautiful Christians who belong to political parties that are different, who think differently about global warming, who hold different opinions about illegal immigration, and the list goes on and on and on. Let’s not withhold the hand of fellowship because of these things. That would be wrong. And that would be less than to live our lives the color of the blood of the cross, dying to our own opinions and ideas in order to embrace our brothers and sisters. I really wonder how Simon the Zealot and Matthew the tax collector got along so well. The Bible mentions nothing about their relationship within the twelve, but surely their differing political views were a potential point of division. They stayed united. Can we? Are we eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit? That isn't a casual approach, but a very positive action to keep brothers and sisters united in the Spirit of the Lord. We are not to have a spirit of unity, but work hard to maintain the unity that the Spirit gives the church. With all humility, patience, forebearing with one another in love, we are to eagerly maintain the unity of the Spirit. There is no room here for church hopping or cutting of relationships due to a difference of opinion. I pray my brothers and sisters can love me, even with my strong opinions as I work to love them.