Stress Pt. 1

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” 1 KINGS 19:4

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Good morning. Welcome to a new week, and I'm looking
forward to meeting with you each weekday morning this week
as we take some time with God. Let God set
our minds on his thoughts and his perspective on life.
Our perspective can be overwhelming, can't it? And so often

(00:26):
stepping back, remembering that God is a part of the picture.
Not only remembering that, but inviting God to be an
active part of our lives makes such a drastic difference
to our lives. All this week I want to talk
about a very relevant topic, and that is the topic
of stress.

(00:46):
Stress, it's something that every one of us faces, don't we?
It's an inescapable part of life, and yes, even of
the Christian life when you're walking with God, stress is
a part of life. So how do you respond to stress?
Well, I want to look all week at the story

(01:08):
of Elijah.
And you remember in the days of Elijah, the king
of Israel's name was Ahab. He was not a good
king at all. He didn't walk with God. And to
make matters worse, he married a very sinful and evil
woman named Jezebel. Even today we use the word Jezebel

(01:31):
to refer to that kind of woman.
Well, uh, Jezebel raised up a group of prophets of
the idle bale.
And here in Israel, a nation that worshiped God, they
were worshiping these idols and promoting all sorts of terrible things.

(01:54):
So Elijah kind of had a duel with the prophets
of Baal on the top of Mount Carmel, and God
revealed Himself to be the only true God in a
very powerful and real way. It was shocking, and it
revealed to the people of Israel who was really God,
and they went out and killed all those prophets of Baal.

(02:16):
Well, King Ahab got home and he told Jezebel what
had happened.
And this is what it says in 1 Kings chapter
19 in the Old Testament of the Bible.
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how
he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

(02:36):
Then Jezebel sent a message to Elijah saying,
So may the gods do to me and more also
if I do not make your life as the life
of one of them by this time tomorrow, well.
You can just imagine the stress that rose up in

(02:58):
Elijah's heart. He had been facing a very stressful time already.
It had been a time of drought by his prophecy
for 3.5 years, all of Israel had been suffering and struggling.
The king had been searching for him to try to
find a way to end the drought.
The drought had just ended. Then there'd been this confrontation

(03:20):
with the prophets of Baal. Elijah is exhausted. He's at
the end of his rope. And then to cap it
all off after this great victory over the prophets of
Baal comes this threat from Jezebel. The next verse says,
then he was afraid, and he rose and ran for
his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah,

(03:43):
and left his servant there.
And he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness
and sat under a broom tree.
Well, what we see in Elijah's life was a whole
series of events that led to mounting stress in his life.
It wasn't fake stress, was it? It was a real

(04:07):
stressful situation, and I'm sure it's the same for you
also many times in your life, and I wonder if
there are many of us today who are listening.
Who are facing such stress in our lives that we're
wondering how we can keep going. I know I've been
to that point in my own life. I've seen the
cliff wall approaching and have known that I would have

(04:30):
a breakdown if something didn't change, and you've faced that too.
When that happens, don't forget that God is real, that
he's there in your life, that he can overcome any situation,
and not only that, but even if he takes you
through that situation, he can strengthen you and enable you.

(04:51):
He can strengthen you and enable you.
So bring your stress to God today.
I'm John North.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
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