Stressing Out

Last night, I taught Psalm 106-118.

In Psalm 107, it talks about when we are in distress. Distress means “pain, suffering, trouble or in desperate need of assistance; subject to hardship, stress, and strain”.

There are four distinct places referred to where distress takes place:

1. Wandering: (Psalm 107:4-6) we find ourselves stressed when we don’t know what our future holds.

2. Depression: (Psalm 107:10-13) stress comes when we are depressed and stress often causes depression

3. Disease: (Psalm 107:17-19) rebellion against the Kingdom of Heaven: that is sin and as a result, they suffered affliction, sickness; this is very stressful

4. Fear: (Psalm 107: 23-28) when fear overwhelms you, stress is definitely evident.

As I was reading these Scriptures,  I remembered in Latin class in high school that “dis” means “away from”. So, we need to learn how to be “dis”stressed instead of distressed!!! We need to be away from stress! In these Scriptures GoD was delivering them from their distress! He was “dis”stressing them!

After teaching last night, I wanted to look deeper into this word and I found something that I thought was amazing! This word “distress” comes from a Latin word “districtia” and means “a division of territory”.

God created you to take the territory He has given you and bring the Kingdom of Heaven to it! Genesis says that we were made in His image, in His likeness, to rule it: to take dominion. It was and has always been God’s desire for His children, His created, to rule and reign over His Kingdom on earth.

When you get away from your original design to carry the Kingdom of Heaven to your territory, it creates stress in your life! You are unhappy and unfulfilled because you are not fulfilling what God made you to do!!!

So my encouragement for you today is to get back to Kingdom thinking and Kingdom living. You are royalty. You are a part of the Kingdom of Heaven. God is King. He owns it all and He is in charge of its citizens. That’s YOU!!!

So there is never a need to stress! He is perfect at “dis”stressing you! Get back to your original design of bringing His Kingdom into your territory and watch your wandering, depression, disease, and fear disappear! None of that is allowed in the Kingdom, so you can’t permit it in your life as a citizen of that Kingdom!

Wandering, depression, disease, and fear are not allowed in the Kingdom, so you can’t permit it in your life as a citizen of that Kingdom!

So stop stressing out and start “dis”tressing by carrying it all to your King and trusting Him to take care of it for you!