Stress Is Not Our Friend: Finding Peace in a Stressful World

When life feels overwhelming and stress takes center stage, God invites us to rest in His peace. It’s counterintuitive to us. In this post, I want to explore how to release our burdens and trust Him through life’s heaviest seasons.

We live in a world that seems to celebrate stress. Our culture rewards hustle, praises busyness, and often equates exhaustion with success. But the truth is simple: stress is not our friend. It drains our joy, clouds our judgment, and distances us from the peace God intends for us to live in.

Stress is Not Our Friend

At the end of last year, I found myself carrying more than my share of burdens. My work duties were shifting in ways I didn’t fully understand or agree with, but was not being asked, just informed. I couldn’t figure out if things were being done for me or to me. At home, my family and I were mourning the death of my sister-in-law. In the midst of leading my family through indescribable sorrow, I was grieving the suicide of a homeless friend and trying to make sense of why another friend, also homeless, had taken another man’s life. At work, many of the initiatives I had poured time and my heart into suddenly seemed like they were being dissolved. I felt bewildered and lost.

It was too much. The weight of grief, change, and uncertainty pressed down like a stone on my chest. And yet, even in that heaviness, I heard the whisper of Jesus in my ear.

 Matthew 11:28-30 NIV

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Jesus’ words reminded me that rest isn’t found when everything is fixed. No, that would be too easy. It’s found when everything is surrendered. God wasn’t asking me to understand it all; He was simply asking me to trust Him through it all.

Finding Peace In A Stressful World

Stress may be part of our lives, but it doesn’t have to control our lives. When we let stress rule our lives, it becomes a thief that robs us of our focus, steals our gratitude, and replaces faith with fear. But our faith calls us to something different. It calls us to rest in God’s strength rather than our own.

2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Peace isn’t about perfect circumstances or knowing the answer to every question. Peace comes from trusting the One who holds all things together, even as the world around us is falling apart. As we shift our focus from what stresses us to the One who sustains us, we start to experience what the Bible calls “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).

So, my friend, today, take a deep breath. Let go of what you can’t control. Remind yourself that God is not glorified by your stress. He’s glorified when you trust Him in it. Whatever it is, we can depend on Him to see us through the fire.

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Reflection Question:

What’s one burden you’ve been carrying alone that you can hand over to God today?

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A Prayer For Stressful Times

Lord, You know the weight I carry. Teach me to lay my burdens at Your feet and trust Your heart when I can’t see Your hand. Thank You for being my peace in the midst of pressure. In the holy and precious name of Jesus. Amen.

Until my next post…

Be salty, stay lit.

Rainer Bantau —The Devotional Guy™

You can now find my articles in The Christian Grandfather Magazine.

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