Why Believers Must Exchange Stress for His Rest by Teresa Shields Parker
http://www.identitynetwork.net/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=241345&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
By Teresa Shields Parker
We all have issues. It's just a fact of life. And when the issues we are concerned about are beyond our control, we tend to worry and stress over them. Then, we do irrational things, such as eating everything unhealthy in our homes or running to the nearest fast-food restaurant to get something even more unhealthy. In addition to whatever mental and emotional stress we feel regarding the "mini-crisis" in our world, we now have just added physical stress to our bodies in terms of additional pounds.
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We all have issues. It's just a fact of life.
And when the issues we are concerned about are beyond our control, we tend to worry and stress over them. Then, we do irrational things, such as eating everything unhealthy in our homes or running to the nearest fast-food restaurant to get something even more unhealthy.
In addition to whatever mental and emotional stress we feel regarding the "mini-crisis" in our world, we now have just added physical stress to our bodies in terms of additional pounds.
Why don't we just give ourselves a break?
Why do we keep obsessing over things we can't fix?
What if we just made it our goal to put stress to rest?
We can do this by intentionally handing the issues causing us to stress to God and trusting Him enough to take care of them in His time and His way.
What's Your Problem?
Many times, though, we don't even realize the root of our stress. We just automatically turn to food to try to soothe us whenever the feeling of overwhelm hits. We use food to mask our stress. And though it may numb us for a while, we need more and more to forget about our problems again. We have a learned behavior, and we've taught it to ourselves way too well.
For many years, I thought my weight caused me most of my stress. However, I learned that my weight was simply the byproduct of my stress—not the other way around. I would stress over some problem, and then I would eat to try to make the stress go away. Excessive and emotional eating caused weight gain, but the real issue wasn't the eating. The real issue was that I was trying to fix every problem that came into my line of sight.
This makes us feel like we are going crazy because we weren't created to handle every single problem that we see in the world, in our friends' lives, in our family's lives and even in our own life. We have to stop the insanity of trying to control everything.
If we can just stop and clear our minds, we can see that everything happening to us right now is attributing to our stress because we are living in a state of chronic stress. As a result, everything looks and feels stressful, even good things. I know I've been there.
Teresa Shields Parker
http://www.identitynetwork.net/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=What-Does-My-Voice-Sound-Like-by-Teresa-Shields-Parker-&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
To say we have no voice or say in what happens in our lives is an excuse for not surrendering to the Holy Spirit. We do have a voice but it means we are just living by every whim we have and not by God. Galatians 5:16 TPT tells us, "As you yield to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self-life." This lets us know that our voices will be dynamically powerful or marked by continuous productive activity and change in an energetic way when we make sure we have left behind our desires and cravings which seem to lead us down the wrong paths.
http://www.identitynetwork.net/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=From-Disappointment-to-Hope-by-Teresa-Shields-Parker-&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
What disappoints you? Is it yourself? Is it circumstances you think you shouldn't have to go through? Is what you think God should have done for you think He didn't? Is it other people giving up on fulfilling their potential? When it comes to our personal failures and disappointments, it is very difficult to deal with. Case in point. when we really want such as to lose weight and try but fail. It's disappointing when it doesn't go as planned. When we hit roadblocks within ourselves it's hard to know what to do.
http://www.identitynetwork.net/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=What-Can-I-Do-When-I-Am-Discouraged-by-Teresa-Shields-Parker-&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
King David asked God a question I've asked myself many times. "Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise Him again—my Savior and my God!" (Psalms 42:11 NLT). That's what we should do, but many times we don't. The word discouraged means to have lost confidence or enthusiasm, to be disheartened. In modern language that means to be beat down, gloomy, and dismayed. When you are discouraged it's like you have been knocked down and can't get up even after the referee has counted to 10. If you do get up, it's to drag yourself to your bed and stay there. You have no energy.
