What causes stress?
Luke 22:54-57So they arrested him [Jesus] and led him to the high priest’s home. And Peter followed at a distance. The guards lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter joined them there. A servant girl noticed him in the firelight and began staring at him. Finally she said, “This man was one of Jesus’ followers!” But Peter denied it. “Woman,” he said, “I don’t even know him!”
Stress often comes from fear. In Peter’s case, he was still processing Jesus’ unexpected arrest and was afraid of being arrested himself. Peter allowed that fear and stress to control him, which led to his greatest regret—his denial of Jesus.
Exodus 18:13-17The next day, Moses took his seat to hear the people’s disputes against each other. They waited before him from morning till evening. . . . “This is not good!” Moses’ father-in-law exclaimed. “You’re going to wear yourself out—and the people, too. This job is too heavy a burden for you to handle all by yourself.”
Overwork is a common source of stress—both for the one who is overworked and for the people around them.
1 Samuel 13:7-9Saul stayed at Gilgal, and his men were trembling with fear. Saul waited there seven days for Samuel, as Samuel had instructed him earlier, but Samuel still didn’t come. Saul realized that his troops were rapidly slipping away. So he demanded, “Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings!” And Saul sacrificed the burnt offering himself.
Stress and fear often gain momentum as time ticks on. The stressor of time pushed Saul to make a foolish decision.
Job 2:7So Satan left the Lord’s presence, and he struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot.
Luke 18:35-37As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind beggar was sitting beside the road. . . . So he began shouting, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Matthew 9:20-21Just then a woman who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding came up behind him. She touched the fringe of his robe, for she thought, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.”
Sickness, injury, and other physical pains or limitations can be a source of stress.
Exodus 16:2-3There, too, the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron. “If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.”
Like the scarcity of meat and water in the wilderness, our circumstances and our limitations often cause stress. The Israelites blamed God for their situation, but this did nothing to alleviate their stress—and it insulted the one who could rescue them from that stress.
Genesis 3:6, 23The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. . . . So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made.
Temptation usually creates stress by challenging the truth. When we give in to temptation, the stress seems momentarily alleviated until we realize what we have done and the stress of guilt and shame overwhelms us.
Genesis 42:21Speaking among themselves, they said, “Clearly we are being punished because of what we did to Joseph long ago. We saw his anguish when he pleaded for his life, but we wouldn’t listen. That’s why we’re in this trouble.”
Jacob’s sons experienced the stress of guilt and regret, a long-term consequence for betraying their brother Joseph years earlier.
2 Samuel 11:4David sent messengers to get her [Bathsheba]; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her.
2 Samuel 12:7-14Then Nathan said to David, “. . . Why, then, have you despised the word of the Lord and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites and stolen his wife. . . .” Then David confessed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
When we are confronted with our sin, the weight of stress often pushes us toward repentance and confession.
Psalm 109:1-3O God, whom I praise, don’t stand silent and aloof while the wicked slander me and tell lies about me. They surround me with hateful words and fight against me for no reason.
Proverbs 17:9Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends.
Relationships with both friends and enemies are often a source of stress.
Exodus 15:1Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord: “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; he has hurled both horse and rider into the sea.”
Exodus 16:3“If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.”
Shortly after their miraculous deliverance from slavery in Egypt, the people of Israel began complaining that they had been rescued. Their life of slavery was full of suffering, but it was a familiar suffering, and they preferred it to the unknowns of the wilderness. Even the best change often produces stress.
James 1:2-4When troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
Adversity and the normal problems of life cause stress.
Proverbs 12:24Work hard and become a leader; be lazy and become a slave.
Luke 14:28-29“But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you.”
Laziness and poor planning eventually cause stress.
Luke 12:48“When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.”
2 Corinthians 11:27-29I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. . . . Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my feeling that weakness? Who is led astray, and I do not burn with anger?
Leadership and responsibility is often stressful.
Colossians 3:13Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.
Making mistakes causes stress; forgiving the mistakes of others can alleviate stress.
Psalm 118:8-9It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.
Jeremiah 17:5This is what the Lord says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord.”
John 15:5“I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”
Human strength is fallible. It is good to persevere and do our best, and it is good to have people we can count on. But if we become arrogant and overconfident in human strength—our own strength or the strength of others—we will become like a branch trying to grow without its vine. Such efforts always end in stress and fruitlessness.
Job 31:24“Have I put my trust in money or felt secure because of my gold?”
Matthew 6:19-21“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”
1 Timothy 6:9-10People who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
Putting our trust in money ultimately leads to stress and sorrow.
Genesis 3:16-17Then he [God] said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.” And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.”
Romans 5:15The sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many.
Because sin entered our world, many stressors came with it such as difficult work, physical pain, temptation, relational conflict, and the heaviness of grief.
