Strategy for stressful times, specifically, we’re gonna look at how Jesus personally handle stress.
Strategy for stressful times, specifically, we’re gonna look at how Jesus personally handle stress.
The Bible says we were to look to Jesus as our model for Him during tough times, we’re to follow His example of resilience, and we’re to follow His example stress management, and the Bible says in Hebrews 12 verses one to three out of the New Living Translation.
“Since we are surrounded by such a crowd of witnesses to this life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance,” Underline that. “Run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus.” Do you see that?
“We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish. Jesus was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy He knew would be His afterwards. And now He is seated in the place of highest honor beside God’s throne in heaven. Think about all He endured.”
That’s what we’re talking about this weekend, resilience. Think about all He endured when sinful people did such terrible things to Him, so that you, so that you don’t become weary and give up.
Now, what does that verse and passage tell us? Nobody experienced greater stress than Jesus Christ. He experienced enormous pressure, He was criticized constantly, He was misunderstood, there were constant demands on His life, He had little privacy, and there were people who were trying constantly to kill Him. I doubt that’s true of you, but that’s stress.
And yet, when we look at the life of Jesus Christ, we look at His ministry, we see that He walked and He lived with an amazing peacefulness. No matter how difficult the situation became, He modeled a calmness and a resilience in the face of outrageous demands.
And this is why the Book of Hebrews advises us to keep our eyes on Jesus. And that’s what we’re gonna do today, we’re gonna watch His example of endurance, we’re gonna learn His secrets of resilience.
A one secret of resilience, when you’re under stress remember how much God loves me.
That’s the first antidote to stress. It’s the first secret of resilience, it is the principle of compassion. Jesus had no doubt in His mind that God the Father loved Him. He talks about it over and over and over and over.
Just one verse on your outline, John 10:17, “The Father loves me.” “The Father loves me.” Now, knowing and remembering that God loves you unconditionally, and God loves you extravagantly, and God loves you continuously, and He will never stop loving you, that is the foundation, that’s the first secret, the foundation of a resilient life.
As Paul says in the Book of Romans, “If God’s for us, who can be against us.” Okay? Who can be against us? We are resilient because we know that God will never stop loving us.
Now, I know what you’re thinking, that of course, God loves Jesus, He’s His Son, but did you know that Jesus said the same thing about you too? Yeah, in John 15:9-10, it says this, Jesus says, “Just as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.”