Category: Stress

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Prince of Peace

The Kedge Anchor

Photo by Artem Podrez on Pexels.com

It’s Christmas in July and so let’s celebrate our freedom and Jesus is the Prince of Peace, Isaiah 9:6. We all long for peace in this chaotic world. We don’t have to go far or look far to see the chaos in society today. There’s enough external chaos to distract us and keep us in an anxious state. Then let’s admit it, we can create our own chaos. A slip of the tongue, posting something we shouldn’t, not doing something we should or shouldn’t can all be the beginning of chaos. For myself, I don’t have try. Words slip out or I may misuse a word with unintended negative meaning, I’m horrible at math so I can send our checkbook in a downward spiral, not having my priorities straight, that’s just what I can do make my life a little chaotic.

Perhaps you have kids all with different activities, maybe you have over committed yourself at work or at church leaving you no time for family, for yourself or more importantly for God. Housework piles up, work piles up, maybe you’ve been so busy you forgot to pay the water bill. Life in itself happens. Turn on the news or open a social media app and the chaos surrounding us can be overwhelming, discouraging, leaving us to wonder is there any hope? We don’t need to look for chaos sometimes we create or it finds us.

But what we all are searching for is peace. We want order in the chaos. We may not be able to control the chaos in the world, but we can have peace in the chaos in our lives. Jesus is the Prince of Peace, Isaiah 9:6 -“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” I heard something the other day that I thought was interesting. I was watching the Bible (Season 3, Episode 8) Rountable on The Chosen app, Rabbi Jason Sobel refers to Genesis 1:2, he references the Spirit of God hovering over the deep when the waters were in chaos in the beginning and Matthew 14:26-33 where Jesus walks on water. He says in a “sense the storm represents the chaos in the beginning.” I highly recommend watching this Roundtable episode, at approximately 24:42 Rabbi Jason speaks of this. I believe that the Trinity was there creating the world. Jesus the Prince of Peace was there bringing order, peace to the chaos.

We are all looking for peace in our lives. I know many people are dealing with and struggle with anxiety, that alone creates chaos. They don’t need to look outside of their own hearts to see chaos and experience. Peace sometimes can be something we see as unattainable, almost impossible. But we can have peace. Jesus is the Prince of Peace, Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father. We can pray for peace and God will give us peace. It’s been said that we shouldn’t pray for patience because God will send us situations to test us in patience. Does God test our peace if we ask for it? We may still struggle but that’s on us because we are sometimes reluctant to surrender. I don’t believe God will create disorder and chaos in our lives to teach how to have peace or to test us. We create the chaos. Adam and Eve created chaos in the Garden. God will use the chaos and disorder we create or whatever is around us to grow us or call us closer to Him. If we ask for peace, God will lead us to it.

The Bible tells us “Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” Psalm 34:14. We are to seek and pursue peace. If Jesus is the Prince of Peace, then we should be seeking Jesus and pursuing Him.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God

Matthew 5:9

Here are some verses:

John 14:27 – “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” (ESV)

John 16:33 – “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (ESV)

Isaiah 26:3 – You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” (ESV) (this is where I believe we need to surrender and fix our hearts and minds on Jesus).

Judges 6:24 – “And Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and named it Yahweh-Shalom (which means “the LORD is peace”). The altar remains in Ophrah in the land of the clan of Abiezer to this day.” (NLT)

Philippians 4:17 – “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (ESV)

2 Thessalonians 3:16 – “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.” (ESV)

Psalm 29:11 – “The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace.” (KJV)

Psalm 23 – “The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.2 He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams… “

This is what I have learned about prayer. Sometimes praying can be dangerous. Be careful what you pray for. While I don’t think God would lead us to chaos, I do think He will use the chaos that is already around us or the chaos we have already created for ourselves. He may open our eyes to it or make our hearts more sensitive to it so that He can work peace through and in us.

God is sovereign and will use anything to get our attention. He also doesn’t answer prayer as we expect Him to. Read the book of Habakkuk. God didn’t create the evil, He used the existing evil to defeat the evil surrounding Habakkuk. Not what Habakkuk expected. But I believe we can ask for peace and God will use the chaotic situation around us or in to draw us to Him or draw us even closer to Him. I don’t believe He will lead us to chaos and disorder. I could be wrong, but will He test us in trying to have peace? Like salvation, peace is there, we need to ask, we need to surrender. He leads, we need to follow. We may need to surrender and that may be something He is trying to teach us, there may be other things He could be trying to teach us. He could be leading us to “peaceful streams” and “green pastures” and we are the ones not following the right path.

We are free to celebrate Christmas anytime of year! So let’s celebrate the Prince of Peace, seek peace and pursue it!

Stress

Dirty Dishes

The Kedge Anchor
Photo by Wendy Wei on Pexels.com

Happy Friday! I used to get my undies in a bunch over messes, dirty dishes, and my home not ready for Better Homes and Gardens to come in a take amazing pictures of my home. But who lives like that? I have wasted too much energy on trying to have my home perfect and always looking like a magazine. What I learned, it’s ok that my house isn’t perfect, it’s ok that I have piles of books and papers on the kitchen counter. It’s ok I have baskets of dirty laundry and clean laundry. It’ ok the bed went unmade. And it’s really ok the sink has dirty dishes, it means we ate. Some folks don’t have that luxury. The fact that I have a mess and dirty dishes in the sink means I have been out living life, doing things, living the life God gave me. Those messes will get taken care of when someone has the time to clean them.

Ok so my house isn’t a pig sty. I do clean. But I stopped to evaluate what was most important, people or a messy home. My home may have a mess here and there, but it’s a clean mess. I try not to take for granted that I am healthy enough to make a mess and clean it. So I wrote a little poem to help remind me. Enjoy. (ok it’s a little off, but so is my house)

The Lord Blesses as We Messes

I am thankful for the dirty dishes

 in my sink,

for I am healthy enough to dirty them,

 eat and drink.

I am thankful for the dirty clothes in the basket, 

for I’m healthy enough to dirty them,

   and nothing but washing will mask it.

I am thankful for the messes that lie about, 

   un-made beds, a pile of clothes , papers strewn –  a thought without,

for I am healthy enough to make those messes.

Now I pray for the energy to clean,

 as the Lord continues to blesses. 

©thekedganchor.com2022

Stress

Got Stress?

The Kedge Anchor
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Recently I have been reading in 2 Corinthians from The Modern Life Study Bible. In 2 Corinthians 6:3-10 Paul talks about dealing with stress. There is a little commentary in the margin that I had to reread a few times. Let me just preface this by saying I am not disagreeing with the following, there were just some things that made me go hmmmm.

“Tension, conflict, weariness and suffering are common place in our world but some hold out that God will bring life struggles to an end. They assume that a relationship of Christ ushers us into peace, even prosperity… as long as we live on this earth we will experience the unbreakable connection between trouble and hope. It may not be pleasant but it brings lasting benefits… James challenges us to find joy in our various trials because they produce patients which in the end makes us mature (James 1:2-4).  As long as we attempted to obey Christ we can count on having to deal with stress but whatever strain we feel today reaps riches to enjoy for eternity.”

The Modern Life Study Bible, Thomas Nelson 2014

I agree with some of this, “Tension, conflict, weariness and suffering are common place in our world but some hold out that God will bring life struggles to an end.” Hmmm, well shouldn’t we hope that God will one day end all the strife in the world? Perhaps I am not reading that correctly. Maybe not this side of heaven but God will end all suffering when Jesus returns. I am looking forward to that day. Shouldn’t we hope that God will end our whatever current crisis we are enduring? Shouldn’t we hope that God will put an end to the chaos and craziness in our world? 

I also agree with, “They assume that a relationship of Christ ushers us into peace, even prosperity…” Regardless if we walk with or without God, if we are in a relationship with Him the rain, the stress falls on the just and the unjust. Being a believer, Christ follower, Child of God, a Christian doesn’t mean a life prosperity. So I’d rather have the stress with God then without Him which I believe there is a peace maybe not so much ease and prosperity but with God there is a peace, He is the Prince of Peace. John 14:27 – “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” Just because we have a relationship with God doesn’t mean we won’t encounter hardships here on earth. John 16:33 – “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Even Jesus encountered some rough times. I can think of one very rough day. 

“…the unbreakable connection between trouble and hope.”

The Modern Life Study Bible, Thomas Nelson 2014

Hmmm, not sure what is meant by that. The now and the not yet? That is a difficult place to be. But I believe there is always hope in any situation.

There are some benefits to following Christ.

Matthew 16:24,25 – If we lose our lives for His sake we will find them.

Hebrews 12:8-11 – We are God’s children and when He disciplines us that is evidence we belong to Him as His chlidren.

James 1:2-4 – James encourages us to find joy in our trials, for trials produce patience. We don’t need to ask for patience when we have enough trials in front of us to help us cultivate patience.

1 Peter 4:12,13 – Facing these trials can cause us to waiver in Christ. Trials in this life are pretty common but they can produce some great results. We can experience the suffering of Christ so that we can also experience His glory.

God never said it would be easy to follow Him, He never promised that. But He did promise that He would never leave us or forsake us. Deuteronomy 31:8 – “
It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” He said in Philippians 4:19 – “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

The conflicts, tension, and weariness won’t come to a complete end until Jesus returns. There is always hope, Jesus is our only hope, He is  the only hope this world has. So if there is going to be conflict and stress in this world, I’d don’t want to take another step with out God by my side. After all He has overcome the world.  

Stress

What is Your Relationship with Food?

The Kedge Anchor

Photo by Olya Kobruseva on Pexels.com

There are so many things that appear innocent that can be a sin that causes us to move away from God. Not having our priorities straight isn’t a sin per se. They can become sin when God isn’t our foremost priority. Then there are things that we use to fill a void or use as an escape. Things that are good and for our enjoyment.

God may remove things and situations from our lives that have demanded our time, love and attention, for whatever reason He has to grow us. Empty nesters for example, there is a valid, legitimate void in their lives. And it’s not to say they can’t take time for themselves or venture out in a new hobby or lifestyle. They should. But I think we need to realize that God is the only one Who can fill that void, that emptiness. The new hobby, the new lifestyle isn’t a sin but when that new thing becomes a priority over God that’s when we are walking on shaky ground.

If you’re like me, you enjoy food, friends, family and fellowship. Notice I listed food first over people. LOL. I enjoy food and eating and sharing a meal with friends and family. Sometimes for myself it can be an escape. It’s easy for me after a bad day or just out of boredom to turn to food. Stress can do that to some of us. Depression, stress, voids, frustration, boredom, grieving aren’t sin. It’s when we turn to other things other than God first can it become sin.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world, in paradise, walking and talking with God on a daily basis. Everything was perfect until Eve was tempted by Satan and ate a piece of fruit instructed by God not to eat. Food. Food is not a sin but it was used against Eve to sin. Eve fell to the lie that God was holding back something, thus she needed this piece of fruit to fill that void. She didn’t. It’s easy to abuse food. It’s subtle like out enemy. Some deal with stress by over eating. Some are insecure about their body weight and avoid it starving themselves becoming anorexic. Some become bulimic. Or society leads us to believe lies about ourselves so we turn to food, abuse it, or sometimes to fill a void.

In scripture we read of Jesus and His disciples at feasts, wedding feasts, eating enjoying food and celebrating. Then there’s the last supper. There was a time when Jesus fasted, Matthew 4:2. God gives us instruction on fasting, Matthew 6:16-18.
Food like anything else in our lives has a place. When God creates a void, only He can fill it. He wants to be the one to fill it. Yes He even creates that need sometimes so that we can turn to Him first. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God …” Matthew 6:33

But let me say this, if you’re stressed for whatever reason, you do need to take care of yourself. Eat responsibly and enjoy the junk food within reason. Food has it’s place in our lives. God created us to eat. Our enemy is subtle and will use anything to keep us apart from God. John 10:10 -“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”