Reading Time: 6:45
Some time back a found that I had to learn to deal with stress in my life. I used to deny that it was an issue. I used to just say, “Just get it together,” and continue on. However, as it began to effect my health and my attitudes towards things, I finally had to admit the toll it was taking on my life.
Granted, I am older now and don’t hold up as well to pressure. Rather than starting to avoid the things that “pressurized” me, I began to seek out ways to deal with the stressors in my life face on.
Divine Counsel
One of the first passages the Lord gave to help me was from Proverbs chapter 4. The Bible helps us to deal with stress by giving us the wisdom of God concerning the the issue.
The version of Proverbs 4 that ministers to me the most is from the 1984 version of the New International Version:
“20 My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words.
21 Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart;
22 for they are life to those who find them and health to a man's whole body.
23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
24 Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you.
26 Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm.
27 Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.”
This passage is packed with wise counsel. It speaks of your health and your heart (the physical and the spiritual). It speaks of your mouth and your eyes (what goes out and what comes in). It concludes with advice I have had to go back to time and time again—“make level paths for your feet.” This is not only a reference to the crooked paths of the wicked, but to the fact that sometimes we just take on too many things. As a result, we fail to perform well in any of the things we undertake.
For me, there is so much that needs to be done in God’s kingdom that I always feel I am not doing enough. However, the second part of that verse reveals even more to me now—“take only ways that are firm.”
Nothing’s Really New
For the past few years I have struggled to keep up with all the new things everyone says you ought to be doing as a church. I labor to understand and incorporate all these latest fads into our church and my position as a pastor. Lately though, I have been falling behind and it has been producing stress in my life. Is my ministry over? Am I no longer productive for the kingdom? Should someone else take my place? Have I lost my relevance?
The constant questioning of yourself will produce a great load of stress in your life and cause you to second-guess everything you attempt. So I have taken the course of returning to my roots and reaffirming who I am and not what everyone wants me to be. I’m returning to “level paths” and “only ways that are firm.” Even the version I used to rediscover this truth is the 1984 version of the NIV, not the 2011 version. The new Logos Bible Software I have been trying to learn does not even provide the 1984 version as a source. As a result, even my time in the Word has become stressful.
At Calvary this month I am sharing a series entitled Deal With It! As I do I find there are things I need to deal with also. I need to cut off the constant flow of new books everyone tells me I need to read and return to the Word of God. I need to quit following the latest teaching that’s gaining momentum and return to following the Holy Spirit. I need to cut off some of the relationships that drain me and fellowship with likeminded believers that lift me up. Like our 2020 National Prayer Theme states, I need to “Level the Praying Field.”
My ministry was getting pretty lame. I was simply responding to the latest felt need. I was only trying to accommodate what others think I should be and losing the image God has placed in my heart. Sometimes the help others want so desperately to give to you can become oppressive. They want to conform you into the image of what they think you ought to be and not the image God has placed in your heart. One size does not fit all in God’s kingdom. He is a God of infinite variety.
So as this year sets in, I’m cutting off a lot of input into my life. I have not seen its benefit. It only pressurizes me to take on more and more unproven techniques that limit the time I have to seek the Lord and his will for my life, my family, my ministry, and my church. Much study is a “weariness to the flesh,” Ecclesiastes 12:12 states, but in his presence is “joy forevermore,” according to Psalm 16:11.
The writer of Hebrews refers to Proverbs chapter 4 in Hebrews 12:13:
“Make level paths for your feet,”
so that the lame may not be disabled,
but rather healed.”
Yes, I have become pretty “lame” recently, but the “now" word from the Lord is return to “the ancient paths (Jeremiah 6:16)” and “make level paths for your feet (Proverbs 4:26).”
Yes, I am refreshed by what the Lord says in Jeremiah 6:16:
”Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.”
I need to return to walking in the things which got me this far and quit being so distracted by every new thing that's coming down the road.
Proverbs 4:27 says, “Do not swerve.” I have been bending this way and that way for others until I no longer see any progress in my own life or in the life of our the church. Thank you, Lord, for reminding me of my productive days and how you enabled then me without all this “new” stuff that is yet unproven.
Sometimes you need to patiently work through the ”old” ways you have learned or you will become entangled in a bunch of “new” stuff that will only serve to stress you out and hinder your progress.
"Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you.
Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord,
because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."
1st Corinthians 15:58
Until next Monday, may the Lord reveal the things that are stressing you and empower you to deal with them by his Word and by his Spirit.
Pastor Brian Jenkins
Calvary Assemblies of God