The Stress of Circumstances // Stress Busters, Part 4

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

Sometimes, we wish that all the stress and pressures of life would just go away. And yet … sometimes the circumstances and situations that come our way make stress an absolute inevitability. Great! So now what?

I wish I could tell you that there was something that you could do to avoid every stressful situation and circumstance in this world, wouldn't that be just fantastic but it wouldn't be real because no matter who we are, where we live, how young or old we are, how rich or poor we are there are going to be those days when tough difficult stressful situations and circumstances arise?

Sure some stressful things are avoidable, we've been talking about those already in this series that I've called Stress Busters and when it comes to needless avoidable stress I'm definitely all for that. But sometimes stressful situations are totally unavoidable and they're the ones we're going to be chat about for a few minutes today because it seems to me the trick isn't to hide our heads in the sand and pretend that we can make them go away, the trick is flourishing amidst the stress.

Now you might think that's a crazy idea, flourishing amidst the stress, get off the grass, who are you trying to kid? I know that's what some people are thinking right now but it isn't my idea, it's something that Jesus came up with, it's something that He said to His disciple’s right at the most stressful point in His relationship with them.

He was soon to be crucified, the plot to have Him killed was well afoot and the disciples knew it, they could feel it in their bones and not only was Jesus threatened but they were probably wondering, well are we next? When they come to arrest Jesus and nail Him to the cross are they going to do the same to us? There can't be any greater level of stress than that.

So right at that moment this is what Jesus says to them:

The hour is coming indeed its come when you'll be scattered each one to his home and you'll leave me alone yet I'm not alone because the Father is with me. I have said this to you so that in me you may have peace for in this world you will have tribulation, you will have pressure but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.

John chapter 16, verses 32 and 33.

So the persecution is coming, they're about to be scattered, running in fear for their lives and Jesus says to them 'in this world you will face persecution, you will face tribulation, you will be under pressure.' The original Greek word that sits aback of the English translation of persecution is 'thlipsis', it means pressure, it's stress, it literally means to have the life squeezed out of you. Just fantastic Jesus, they must have been thinking, thanks for that, we just needed to know that.

A promise from God right in the moment where we're fearing for our lives and Jesus says, 'in this world you will have the life squeezed out of you', perfect. But Jesus didn't leave it there, He goes on to say 'but take courage, be of good cheer, don't worry, I have conquered the world, I've overcome it all. All this I've said to you is so that you would have my peace'.

Peace, it's the exact opposite of stress. Which would you rather have in your life, peace or stress? Well peace obviously but here's the nub of what Jesus is saying, you can have that peace right in that place where life is being squeezed out of you. Did you get that?

Jesus is saying, 'look you won't always be able to avoid stressful circumstances, in fact one thing's for certain you will be put under pressure, you will be squeezed but in the middle of that you can have confidence and peace because I've overcome the world.' Something they would see in just a few short days later when Jesus rose from the grave and appeared to them and friend that's the message for you today.

I love how this powerful truth works its way out in the life and the ministry of the Apostle Paul who down the track had more than his fair share of stress. Have a listen to what he writes from out in the field on assignment preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a hostile world, 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 8 to 11:

We don't want you to be unaware brothers and sisters of the affliction we've experienced in Asia for we were so utterly and unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Indeed we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us, on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again as you also join in helping us by your prayers so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

And there it is again, the same word that Jesus used for persecution, exactly the same word 'thlipsis', unbearably crushed so that they despaired of life, they thought they were going to die. That would cause you some serious stress right? And yet in the middle of all that what gave them strength and peace? They relied on God, they trusted in God.

They were at the end of their tether, they had nothing left, life itself hung in the balance, so they did the only thing they could do. Come on, that's what happens, especially let me say when we're in the business of getting out there and doing God’s business of serving Him.

I find it to be true that whenever I'm serving God opposition comes thick and fast. The more powerfully I feel called to step out and serve my Lord, the more powerfully satan and his demons hurl opposition my way. It's as though the armies of hell muster in opposition and they unleash their fury.

I remember once, it was the first time I was to lecture at my old Bible College where I'd been taught. It was a Thursday evening; I drove off from my home, before I had gone half a kilometre three different cars had tried their darndest to run into me. What's going on I thought to myself and then I realised that's what happens when you're serving Jesus, opposition and disruption and stress and pressure and persecution get hurled at you from every direction.

So let's not be surprised, it happened to Jesus, it happened to Paul, it's going to happen guaranteed to you and me, it's exactly what Jesus promised, in this world you will have thlipsis, tribulation, the life squeezed out of you but be of good cheer, be confident, don't be stressed because I've conquered the world. And you know something He has. Our confidence in those places at those times needs to be in Jesus who rose from the dead, in Him alone.

Some time later in his second letter to the Corinthians chapter 4, verses 8 to 15, Paul puts it this way:

We're afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live we're always being given up to death for Jesus sake so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh, so death is at work in us but life in you.

But just as we have the same spirit of faith that's in accordance with scripture, I believed and so I spoke, we also believe and so we speak because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will bring us with you into his presence. Yes everything is for your sake so the grace as it extends more and more to people may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.

Friend the message is clear. In this world you're going to have pressure but don't worry because right in that place the Jesus who rose from the dead will be there, He'll carry you through and when I've had nothing left in my tank it's the only thing that's carried me through, Jesus. Let your confidence be in Him and in Him alone.

Now that's what I call a Stress Buster.