HOW TO KILL STRESS BEFORE IT KILLS YOU

Read Matthew 6:24-34!!

v25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?.... 

Matthew 6:25-34 illustrates a specific *evil condition of heart. It is anxiety. Also known as Stress, Worry, and being Overwhelmed. 

Stop for a moment and think how many different sinful actions and attitudes come from stress & anxiety. 

Stress about finances can give rise to coveting and greed and hoarding and stealing. Stress about succeeding at work can make you irritable and abrupt and inclined to anger.  Stress about relationships can make you withdrawn and indifferent and uncaring about other people. Stress about how someone will respond to you can make you cover over the truth and lie about things. So if stress could be conquered, a lot of sins would be overcome.

But what is the root of stress & anxiety? And how can it be severed? To answer that we go to our text in Matthew 6. 

Four times in this text Jesus says that we should not be anxious, stressed out or worried. (They are all the same.) 

1. Verse 25: "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life."
2. Verse 27: "And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life?"
3. Verse 31: "Therefore do not be anxious."
4. Verse 34: "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow."

The verse that makes the root of anxiety explicit is verse 30: 

"But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothes you, O you of little faith?" 

UNBELIEF is the ROOT of Stress and Anxiety in the Christian life. 

In other words Jesus says that the root of anxiety is lack of faith in our heavenly Father. 

As unbelief gets the upper hand in our hearts, one of the results is anxiety.

So when Hebrews says, "Take heed lest there be in you an evil heart of unbelief," it includes this meaning: "Take heed lest there be in you an ANXIOUS heart of unbelief." 

Stress & Anxiety is one of the evil conditions of the heart that comes from unbelief, lack of trust, and not knowing God well. Much anxiety, Jesus says, comes from *little faith.

Overcoming Anxiety by Battling Unbelief

Let me share some illustrations on how battling unbelief overcomes stress & anxiety.

The Pattern of Jesus and Paul

Here in our text we have the illustration of anxiety over food and clothing. Even in our country with its extensive welfare system, anxiety over finances and housing can be very intense. But Jesus says in verse 30 that this is owing to unbelief: "O you of little faith." And so this paragraph has at least half a dozen promises in it to battle that unbelief.

For example at the end of verse 32 he says, "Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well." 

That is a spectacular promise. 

In everything you do at home and at work, put God's purposes first, and he will provide all you need to live for his glory. Believe that promise, and your stress & anxiety will evaporate in the warmth of God's care.

Paul applied the promise to anxiety in Philippians like this. In 4:6 he says just like Jesus, "Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God." And then in 4:19 he gives the promise like Jesus, "My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

Anxieties We May Face

And so we follow today the pattern of Jesus and Paul. We battle the unbelief of stress & anxiety with the promises of God.

• When I am overwhelmed and anxious about some new situation or meeting, I battle unbelief with the promise: "Fear not for I am with you, be not dismayed for I am your God; I will help you, I will strengthen you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand" (Isaiah 41:10).
• When I am anxious about ministry stuff being useless and empty, I fight unbelief with the promise, "So shall my word that goes forth from my mouth; it will not come back to me empty but accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11).
• When I am anxious about being too weak or insecure to do my work, I battle unbelief with the promise of Christ, "My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9), and "As your days so shall your strength be" (Deuteronomy 33:25).
• When I am anxious about decisions I have to make about the future, I battle unbelief with the promise, "I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you" (Psalm 32:8).
• When I am stressed out about facing people who oppose me, I battle unbelief with the promise, "If God is for us who can be against us!" (Romans 8:31).
• When I am anxious about being sick, I battle unbelief with the promise that "tribulation works patience, and patience approvedness, and approvedness hope, and hope does not make us ashamed" (Romans 5:3–5).
• When I am anxious about getting old, I battle unbelief with the promise, "Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save" (Isaiah 46:4).
• When I am anxious about dying, I battle unbelief with the promise that "none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself; if we live we live to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and rose again: that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living" (Romans 14:8–9).
• When I am anxious that I may make shipwreck of faith and fall away from God, I battle unbelief with the promise, "He who began a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Christ" (Philippians 1:6). "He who calls you is faithful. He will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:23). "He is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).

"And the Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; he will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear, or be dismayed" (Deuteronomy 31:8).

So I urge you in your battle against stress to fight your unbelief. Take up the book of God, ask the Holy Spirit for help, lay the promises up in your heart, and battle on. You simply MUST BELIEVE GOD.