Stressing Out?

As pressure and stress bear down on me, I find joy in your commands. (Psalm 119:143)

We might not be able to escape pressures in this world, much less expect to never have any stress in our lives. Stress actually helps us grow stronger. A tree needs the wind to establish deeper roots. A human body has something referred to as the cellular stress response (CSR) in which the cells of our body respond in such a way as to counter intrusions and restore health to the cell once again. If God made each cell of our body with an ability to 'counteract' stress, don't you think he'd do the same with our 'spiritual cells'?

Look at what our psalmist said: "As pressure and stress bear down on me - I FIND JOY IN YOUR COMMANDS." The stress or pressures of life drove him deeper into God's Word - into his commands and directives for living. There is no better 'counteraction' than to get into God's Word because it bolsters our 'spiritual cells' and helps us respond to the stressors in a way that isn't always the way we would 'normally respond' to them. In fact, we might just respond with peace, assurance, and a bit more faith than most would think the situation deserved!

All of our body's cells die at one time or another. When the cells are under stress, the CSR kicks in, but do all the cells survive? Not always! Sometimes the dead cells need to be replaced with 'fresh cells' that are created as a result of the stress that brought about cellular death in the first place. In much the same way, our 'spiritual cells' might undergo a bit of change under stress. We find there is a certain amount of 'death' that occurs, usually to the 'cells' of self-sufficiency. We learn quickly that our self-sufficiency won't get us through the stress as the pressures keep building. WHO we trust in changes - there is a death to our way of doing things in our own power or stubbornness. (Cellular death occurs and cellular replacement begins)

Christ in me - those three words make all the difference whenever our 'spiritual cells' are under attack. The more we resist the 'necessary death' that must occur for 'cellular replacement' to take place in us, the more unnecessary stress we put ourselves through. It isn't until we let go of the 'dead cells' of pride, self-sufficiency, and self-reliance that we begin to see the beauty of 'cellular replacement' take place. We don't want 'dead cells' in our body, much less in our spirit. Time to let go of them and allow the stress to produce new life within. Just sayin!