Why So Much Stress?

1 Peter 5:6-7 (NIV) ⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Most Christians know that they are to cast their fears, worries or anxieties upon the Lord because He cares for them. They know this and many of them have done so. They have rid themselves of the whole of their anxieties by truly trusting in the Lord. They are free from this self-imposed pressure.

However, many, maybe even more, Christians have tried to cast their stress upon the Lord but have received no relief. They are just as worried, fearful and anxious as before. Why is this?

Let's look at the previous verse. It says that believers are to be humbled (it is in the passive voice) under God's mighty hand. Humility is certainly knowing who He is and who you are but it is also obedience to Whom you are being humbled. In other words, humility requires obedience to what the Lord has told you to do.

There are stresses that cannot be avoided. A sick child or an accident while driving certainly cause stress. Casting these fears and stresses upon the Lord will give relief. But the stress that comes from disobeying what the Lord has led you to do will not be relieved by any effort to cast them to the Lord. He simply will not take them as long as you fail to do as He has commanded.

You obey, even in the middle of a stressful time, and He lifts you up in due time. You cast these fears upon Him because you know His love. You know that He only wants your best and what He has told you to do is best. You will be unable to cast these fears upon Him if you have not been humbled because humility and trust are in direct opposition to each other. You didn't trust Him with obedience. You won't trust Him with fears.

Many stressful situations come because a person has not done what he should have done when the source of the stress is small. The stress has, therefore, become a crisis. The crisis will exist until something is done.

Someone doesn't thoroughly put out a campfire after he leaves a campsite. The smoldering embers reignite and catch the nearby grass on fire. The fire continues to the tress until there is a full fledged forest fire. Hundreds of people are called in to put out the fire. Millions of gallons of water and fire retardants are expended. Thousands of manhours are spent putting out this fire that one bucket of water from a nearby stream would have prevented.

This is often the case of our stress. The non-performing employee is stressed because he is afraid of losing his job. He has let this come to a crisis. The boss is stressed because he must fire this employee but doesn't want to. The company is stressed because the lack of performance has put them in a financial bind. Of course, everyone can be stressed because of the failure to do what needs to be done.

The Christian should ask what the source of his stress is. He needs to ask if he has done everything that he believes the Lord wants him to do. He must be humbled by this complete obedience or there will be no relief no matter how hard he tries to cast his fears upon the Lord.

Often the thing that must be done is easier than than the Christian believes it will be. It may be to return to school or to apply for a new job. It may be that the Christian speaks to someone who has been giving him grief. It may be confronting a bully. God will give him the wisdom to know what to do if he will only ask.

When I was in school I often studied thoroughly the night before. I was confident that I would do well on the next day's test. I even looked forward to the test. The days I didn't study were always full of stress as I faced each test.

The Christian should know that he has done all that the Lord has commanded him to do. Then, he can rest in peace because it is really in the Lord's hands.