Stress Is a Killer

 I have always been under the understanding that stress is a killer.  I don't know where I heard it but as a young person, I believed this to be true and now that I am sitting here, pondering my day and the situations that arise around me. I continue to think that stress is a killer. 

I know that I have written about worry.  I may have even written about stress before.  I have written about techniques and things that I think about that help alleviate the overwhelming emotions that come up when issues that cause stress come up.  I don't think that God would want us to worry.  I think that God would want us to believe and trust that He is sufficient enough for our problems and issues.

"And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?" Matthew 6:27

"Let not your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God; believe also in me." John 14:1

"And he said to them, 'Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?" Luke 24:38

"Say to those who have an anxious heart, 'Be strong; fear not!  Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God.  He will come and save you.'" Isaiah 35:4

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." John 14:27

I could go on and on writing verses that assures us that God doesn't want us to worry.  I'm the same way with my children..  When I see my children stressed out, it stresses me out.  I sit them down.  I tell  them not to worry and I do what I do when I am worried.  I pray.  

In high school, one of my science teachers told me that every thought causes a chemical reaction.  I could not get this thought out of my head and it is still there, marinating.  If every thought causes a chemical reaction, what are my thoughts doing to my body?  How powerful is the mind?  Would I have enough thoughts that I can endanger myself?  The mind is incredibly powerful.  Proverbs 4:23 states, "Be careful what you think, your thoughts run your life." (NCV)  So this leads me to believe that I have been right, stress is a killer.  The answer is not to be stressed.  

I confess that I am easily stressed.  I recognize my triggers.  I like that word, "trigger."  It gives you the option to pull or not pull.  There it is: I don't have to pull the trigger just because something presents itself.  I have a choice.  Yesterday, with a combination of sugar, hormones and some situations; I found myself stressing.  I sat down.  I read the Bible.  I wrote down my prayer to God and I prayed.  Still I felt stressed.  I feel its effects on me.  I hold it in my neck and in my shoulders.  I tense up and I hold it in my arms.  My scalp is affected and as I fun my fingers through my hair, I am reminded of how powerful my mind is and how it affects my body.  Even my scalp tightens as I appear to tighten my bodies for an enemy that does not attack physically but we are affected physically by it.  

I breathe in and out.  I take deep breaths and stretch out my back.  I am thinking about the goodness of God.  God is bigger.  I stress out the most when I don't believe this.  I stress out when I forget how great and how big God is.  I need to read His Word, to remind myself that He is in control.  I forget how the Word has power.  God is bigger than my stress and He is control.  Keep this in mind.  Praise the Lord.