Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly. Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)
I don’t know how it is in your part of the world but here in Australia there is a lot of emphasis on ‘heart smart’ foods and exercise. This is all well and good, but what amazes me is that more and more young and fit people are dying suddenly of heart attacks. My own father died of a massive heart attack at the young age of 45. He was under a lot of stress at the time.
I do know that stress is a main contributor in most types of sickness and disease, because when the body is stressed it doesn’t function as it was designed to do. Our bodies have been ‘marvelously and wonderfully made’ (Psalm 139:14), with such fine-tuning that stress throws the body into a state of self-protection, changing chemical balances. This is okay for the emergencies it is designed to cope with but we are not made to live in a long term state of anxiety which is really just fear. Remember Paul’s words to the Philippians ‘Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto (God)’. (Phil 4:6). Also 1 Peter 5:7 says ‘Cast all your cares upon him, for he cares about you.’
Dr Caroline Leaf has studied the brain and it’s working for more than 20 years and she says that when the brain chemistry goes awry through fear, over time it actually rewires the brain making it impossible, or at best very difficult, for people to live in the fullness of life that God intended for us. They become attuned to living in a state of anxiety that leads to depression unless a deliberate and concerted effort is made to study and follow God’s way of living and doing things. This may require the intervention and help of others to make these changes.
In spite of God’s encouragement to give him our troubles, we sometimes still manage to put pressure on ourselves. We can so easily turn from the joy and peace that first came from knowing the grace of God in our lives, and go back to trying to do things to please God out of duty instead of out of love for him. Personally I have struggled with that performing to please thing for years, which is why it did my heart so much good to hear The Message version of Matthew 11:28-30. There is no stress with God. There is just an ‘unforced rhythm of grace’ constantly flowing, that if we allow it to flow through us will cause us to live ‘freely and lightly’. Do you want to join me in trying it out?
Prayer: Precious Jesus, thank you for the example you gave us by the way you lived out a life of grace, free from stress and strain. Help me to cast all my cares upon you…. and leave them there! Amen
I don’t know how it is in your part of the world but here in Australia there is a lot of emphasis on ‘heart smart’ foods and exercise. This is all well and good, but what amazes me is that more and more young and fit people are dying suddenly of heart attacks. My own father died of a massive heart attack at the young age of 45. He was under a lot of stress at the time.
I do know that stress is a main contributor in most types of sickness and disease, because when the body is stressed it doesn’t function as it was designed to do. Our bodies have been ‘marvelously and wonderfully made’ (Psalm 139:14), with such fine-tuning that stress throws the body into a state of self-protection, changing chemical balances. This is okay for the emergencies it is designed to cope with but we are not made to live in a long term state of anxiety which is really just fear. Remember Paul’s words to the Philippians ‘Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto (God)’. (Phil 4:6). Also 1 Peter 5:7 says ‘Cast all your cares upon him, for he cares about you.’
Dr Caroline Leaf has studied the brain and it’s working for more than 20 years and she says that when the brain chemistry goes awry through fear, over time it actually rewires the brain making it impossible, or at best very difficult, for people to live in the fullness of life that God intended for us. They become attuned to living in a state of anxiety that leads to depression unless a deliberate and concerted effort is made to study and follow God’s way of living and doing things. This may require the intervention and help of others to make these changes.
In spite of God’s encouragement to give him our troubles, we sometimes still manage to put pressure on ourselves. We can so easily turn from the joy and peace that first came from knowing the grace of God in our lives, and go back to trying to do things to please God out of duty instead of out of love for him. Personally I have struggled with that performing to please thing for years, which is why it did my heart so much good to hear The Message version of Matthew 11:28-30. There is no stress with God. There is just an ‘unforced rhythm of grace’ constantly flowing, that if we allow it to flow through us will cause us to live ‘freely and lightly’. Do you want to join me in trying it out?
Prayer: Precious Jesus, thank you for the example you gave us by the way you lived out a life of grace, free from stress and strain. Help me to cast all my cares upon you…. and leave them there! Amen
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