STOP stressing out! major biblical keys on combating worry and stress

  ‘We gon be all right, do you hear me? Do you feel me? We gon be alright!’ 

It was very ironic that this was the song playing as I was talking to a friend about the number of different things we had to do and some of our fears and concerns. One thing that kept ringing through my head was if God has brought us this far, surely He is ABLE to see us through.

Psalm 37:23-24 The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the LORD upholds him with His hand.

It is now that time of year where mid-terms and EXAMS are on your case. In my case, I have my 9000-word dissertation to do and it’s very easy to get overwhelmed and discouraged. This led me to think of this point. Imagine the most challenging thing you have ever had to deal with. Now imagine life a month before that event happened. Even if you can look back and say “Oh, I knew it was gonna happen,” there was no way you could have truly known how things were going to play out, how the situation would make you feel, or what lessons you would learn. 

Uncertainty is such an unsettling feeling. As humans we have the tendency to always focus and wonder about 2 years from now, 5 years from now and so on and that can rob us of today’s joy and living in the present moment. Uncertainty is overwhelming when you allow it consume you, HOWEVER, because there is a God who holds tomorrow and takes care of us no matter what, we have no reason to worry about the unknown! So, STOP stressing out because you don’t know what next week, month, SEMESTER, or YEAR is going to look like…

It doesn't all have to be gloomy... His yoke is easy and his burden is light

Now the Bible is such an AMAZING book for it holds so many treasures and REAL-LIFE applications to many of the things that we go through and one person we can certainly learn from is Paul.

In his journey as a Christian, the Apostle Paul had no idea what he was going to face or what would become of him in the days to come. In fact, this man SUFFERED and went without the comforts of life that we are accustomed to as he was living out his purpose for Gods mission. One thing that helped him to keep going in life was to PRAY about EVERYTHING, not worry and to be CONTENT.  

“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I CAN do EVERYTHING through Him who gives me STRENGHT” (Philippians 4:12-13). 

Paul LEARNED that it is far more valuable to focus on God and what He was called to do as opposed to stressing out over what might go wrong even if it meant going to prison. Don’t let yourself be afraid of the unknown.  You are where you are in this stage of life for a reason; it’s all part of the journey and you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t meant to be. When we worry, it can often make us complacent rather than dealing with issues at hand. This is because our emotions can cloud our view of what we have to do. Give yourself time to find out who God really is and how He has been faithful in the past to supply the needs of his people, AND GUESS WHAT? He STILL does the same today. When we get worried and fret to the point of discouragement and weariness it means we do NOT TRUST God. When you look to God for your answers, it will grow your confidence and trust for the future because you know God has it under control so then what should you fear?

God used Paul mightily and He was there for him continually and He wants to do the same for us today.  

We live in a sinful world with many hardships and various encounters which can often lead us worried and stressed. Some of those worries and causes of stress are issues such as:

 1. Not knowing how your school year is going to go.
2. Being uncertain about what to do about your job or different career opportunities

3. Not knowing what your current relationships will look a month from now
4. A situation with your health or your family that's completely out of your control
5. Feeling stuck about how you should approach a situation with a friend or someone your ‘talking’ to.

I would encourage you to give such matters to God and leave them with Him. Don’t pick them up and worry again and know that God will tell you what to do and life will plan out as it should. In order to do this, we must turn down the world's volume so we can be in tune with God.

God will continue to be with us for as long as we live. Keep your focus on finishing the course He has called you to. Don't give up on praying or reading His word because of what hasn't been sorted out yet. Don't stop worshipping and doing His work as you seek Him daily about the decisions or circumstances you're faced with.

You've made it this far and He is NOT going to LEAVE you now!
Love Rejoicexox

Devotional inspiration from* Philippians 4:4-13 and Acts 20:22-23

THIS IS JUST TOO LONG! Rebellion and life callings

At some point during one’s Christian walk, there gets a point when you ask yourself “What’s the point of it all? 

It's either you get overwhelmed or complacent or your walk feels stagnant.  It’s almost like you stop caring about your life because you think God is distant and doesn’t care about you either. Or if you know he cares and wants the best for you, you don't live it out. You start entertaining bad relationships, spend like crazy, some people drink or smoke, or do whatever else that fills their voids rather than seek God, because WHY does it matter anyway?

All this doing "right"— doesn’t seem to be really going anywhere and you have major FOMO (Fear of missing out).This becomes very dangerous because when you start to feel like this, you become blind to your own ignorance which can hinder you in walking the path God intends for you to. It’s almost like there is a glaze over your eyes and ears that we end up not being convicted or if we do it's only temporary before something goes and distracts us.

I think one of the reasons this tends to happen is that we get so focused on someone else’s walk. Or we get too comfortable in our own walk that we stop ceasing to put the work in. Everybody seems to be doing things and making movements towards their “purpose” or life goals. It’s like they have it all figured out and you’re like erm “hey God over here… give me something” or on the otherhand you find yourself overwhelmed with your Christian responsibilities that you start to slack.

As I’m going through my Christian walk, one thing that keeps coming up is that I should seek Christ no matter what I'm feeling or going through (matt 6:33) and pray without ceasing for God will finish the work he has started in me . It can be so easy to get caught up in what God has called us to do, that you may either start something you shouldn’t, or the route of envy begins. On the flip side of things, you may start not to care about your walk at all through your daily actions in life. Don’t ignore Jesus, don't ever stop seeking him or grow weary in doing good. He will make his way plain before your face when you seek him. God is not silent! I’m telling you first hand. God can either communicate to you through your gut instinct/consciousness, people or events, but you gotta be seeking. Write God a note, whisper a prayer... never stop in finding an opportunity to talk to God and pray that he gives you a love for him.

Jeremiah 29:12-14 English Standard Version (ESV)

¹² Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

Now here I have some MAJOR KEYS which I try to abide by which help me when my walk gets a bit blah or i get overwhelmed with all the variours things i have to be keeping up with.

1. You gotta Repent and RENEW. Read ALL of 1 John. See your life as a tree and that you’re bearing fruit. The fruit of your tree should be rooted from Christ. You can give your life to God at a young age but track your life from then till now look how far you have come. I really recommend journaling your devotional thoughts, prayers and general chit chat to God. Yes, the fruit is in the pudding but fruit grows slowly, so don't be hard on yourself if you aren't growing in certain areas. God is great because he gives us grace HOWEVER you must be INTENTIONAL in GROWING up in HIM.

2.You gotta LISTEN to God. When you get convicted about an issue, purpose in your heart to work it out, there is nothing than having peace with Jesus, otherwise, the complaining will never stop. And if he tells you to do something, take the leap and do it ! you will wish you had started earlier. 

3.Check out your space. Who are you hanging out with as you get overwhelmed in your walk ? REMEMBER sin separates us from CHRIST. (Isaiah 59:2). Ask God for guidance in that area of friendships and as you do so, also encourage those around you as they might be feeling the same too.

4.Be content (it's hard yall). Even though you may not be where you want to be in life right now ...  you have God. Keep your eyes on him and he will open doors that no man can close. WHEN JESUS SAYS YES NOBODY CAN SAY NO. Sometimes life gets dreary bit God will bring you some amazing blessings in your life. There is a time for everything Ecclesiastes 3:1.

Please remember (this is also a note to self) that your life is much greater than your feelings job or your degree or your relationship. It's bigger than you appearing successful to some people, It’s bigger than you appearing to be the perfect Christian. It's bigger than what you think. God has created every single one of us and placed us in our mother’s womb for such a time as this, meaning you have a purpose!

The Christian walk is not an easy one, and sometimes it seems like you're not on the right path.But don't get discouraged just know that.If God woke you up this morning, God is going to use TODAY to prepare you for those things HE called you to do. WE will never arrive there is something to always work on. So, don't get caught up in this silly world & it’s ideas, or that you're not good enough. Don't place yourself around people and situations that bring you down.

Love,

Rejoicexox

Interrupted plans !!! But lord I know what i want

Ahhhh nothing worse than when you decide you're gonna have a good day, then all of a sudden everything goes wrong! You know one of them ones when you say you're gonna wake up early, then you miss your alarm, then you're late to do something else, or something goes wrong and it throws you off completely. Trust me I know! so like literally yesterday, I was like okay I'm gonna set my alarm a bit earlier, so I have enough time to do my devotion, go to the gym and finish of my proposal for my meeting with my supervisor before I have to meet him then go to lectures. So I prayed about it, gave it to God and went to sleep. Sounds good right ? Well let me tell you, my alarm went off, no problem, did my devotion- no problem, I went to check my phone to go over some material which I had on there, then next thing you know, my phone freezes and it decided to die and not operate. I was finished ! I had saved some material on there which I needed for my meeting as well as needing it for my gym routine amongst many other things. So basically I spent majority of my day stressing over my phone and pondering when the last time I had backed it up coz I didn't wanna lose my stuff on there. Very stressful . So later on that night before I went to sleep, I talked to God and reflected on my day and he revealed and highlighted some very important points which I believe we can all learn.

REALLY THO ?

I know what I want !

You see Gods timing is everything!( that's another post on its own), we cant help but make plans and wonder when its our time for something to happen, forgetting that everything has its season (Ecclesiastes 3) and we should be anxious for nothing ! The things that we plan and aspire for are often minute matters in the overall picture of life. We want to do things now and  for our lives to go in a certain direction, forgetting that to get to those places lessons need to be learned and work needs to happen in order for us to be prepared for those things we want.

One example I can give for example is that most of us girls want love and to get married. That's fine, but God repeatedly says

do not awaken love whilst it is not yet time, Songs of Solomon 8:4

BUT  we rush ahead and talk to a guy we have no business talking to for various reasons. Then we find ourselves in a situationship or having begun something , it goes wrong and you get heartbroken because you placed so much hope in this guy rather than listening to God and putting your hope in him. Its all about Gods timing and will. Some of us are going around the same mountain every year declaring that we trust God but our heart is not really in it and we are not giving him a chance to do what he would want us to do. INSTEAD we write our own vision and put God on it ! You see that's why God has to interrupt our plans sometimes, because they are not good for us nor are they perfecting our faith- we cant place our trust on our phones, degrees, people etc. because they will fail us.

God knows the desires of our hearts, but in order for him to truly move us into all that he as in store for us, we have to delight in him, commit our ways to him and wait on him inspite of our own timings.

Romans 5:3-5

3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

The bigger picture ~

God sees the bigger picture, Isaiah 55:8-9 declares our plans are not his plans and his thoughts are not our thoughts, that's something we truly need to learn and apply in our lives. Who knows, maybe I could have been involved in an accident if I had left my house the time I had planned. We like something, we set our eyes on someone, things break, inconveniences happen, traffic makes us late, like I could go on and on. The thing is when these things happen how do we react ?,do we say okay God what are you tryna tell me about this, or do we curse and blame God, forgetting that there's a reason for everything ?

You see God is not surprised at these events,  in fact sometimes they are divinely placed in our path to change us to be more like Christ or to give us something much more better. So for example you said you wanted to be more patient, how do you react to the traffic ? Sometimes we expect these big dramatic events to take place and then we are gonna have a massive epiphany, but let me tell you in reality its through these small moments of interruptions and frustrations where we are given the opportunity to trust in God despite the craziness and to rely on him. Our characters are not defined in big moments, but rather through the little things each day which reveal what's on our hearts.

God is certainly teaching me that I'm not in control, I'm not saying not to plan for things because that would be foolish, but rather lets not hold too tightly to these plans, because we are gonna set ourselves up for disappointment and anger when God says otherwise. I'm not in control but I'm sooo glad I serve a God who is. One who is working all things for my good (Romans 8:28), who knows exactly what and who I need at the right time.
Proverbs 16:9 "A man's mind plans his ways, but the lord directs his steps"
so guys lets trust the process and "obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus."