Under Pressure

Pressure is a part of life. In a world that is changing ever faster stress and pressure are a part of every day living. But how do we cope with it? Or more importantly how should we cope with it?

This week we're looking at Luke 4:31-44. Jesus was under pressure. When he was tired the crowds came to be healed. Even when he was alone the people came and sought him out. How did Jesus handle pressure?

1) Even when the pressure was on and the people were crowding round Jesus still had compassion on them. He still saw them as people with needs rather than seeing them as a problem. When the pressure is on it can be very easy to forget that people are people - so we respond with a sharp, critical word, we hurt people's feelings, we think the worst of people rather than the best.

2) With all that was going on Jesus still took time out. In the gospels we find this again and again - being alone to pray, resting, being with his disciples... taking time out. So many of us today try and keep going seven days a week, and even when we have time off we still answer the phone and emails. And so our 'quality time' with God, family, friends... is eroded. We need to take control of our time. If you need to schedule time with God into your diary - do it, a week, a month ahead - whatever it takes. When you're with the family turn the phone off. Get one email address for work and another for home. Make sure you get regular times of rest and refreshment (a minimum of once a week).

3) Jesus also knew what he had been sent to do and he did not allow other things, no matter how good they were, get in the way and be a distraction. So often we're rubbish at saying 'no'. Someone asks us to do something and we say 'of course', until we reach the point where we have so much on that nothing gets done. That means that there are good and worthwhile things that we have to say 'no' to - but if that's not what God has called us to, then that is someone else's task. What has God asked me to do? Am I doing it? Or am I being distracted by other things?

Why Worry?

We worry about all kinds of different things - finances, exams, death, relationships, work, health, the future... And worry has all kinds of effects on us - lack of sleep, don't eat, eat the wrong things, get more worried, make poor choices, suffer from poor health... One thing that we can say is that worrying doesn't help the situation improve. Bobby McFerrin sings,

...Don't worry, be happy, In every life we have some trouble, When you worry you
make it double, Don't worry, be happy...

In Matthew 6:25-34 Jesus tells us that there is no point worrying because it won't make any difference - 'who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?' But unlike Bobby McFerrin, who offers a negative reason as why not to worry - it won't make things better - Jesus offers us positive reasons as why we should not worry.

First there is the truth that God loves us and knows what we need. We are valuable to God - he loved us so much that Jesus died on the cross. And so if we believe that God is in control, that He loves us, that He knows what we need - why worry? Then Jesus tells us that when we put God's priorities first the other stuff will also be taken care of. This means doing the things that God wants. It means that we listen to God's voice rather than the voice of the world. God tells us that He created us, that He loves us, that we're special and valuable...and yet we worry because we're too tall, or too short, or too large, our nose is wrong, we want this bit smaller and those bits bigger...God says that it's what's on the inside that matters...and yet we worry because we don't have the right shoes, and labels and the latest phone...We worry we don't have enough to buy that latest car, we strive for a better job in order to buy more stuff, and yet half the world lives on less that $2 a day.

So what do we do when there are things we're worried about? Philippians 4:6-7 gives us a strategy. First we pray - we talk to God about it. And when we pray we make a conscious effort to remind ourselves and give thanks for all the stuff that God has done for us before - this puts things in perspective. The same God who helped us before can do it again. And then we allow God to give us a peace that you can't explain - but it is an amazing thing to experience.

I know it's tough, and it's something we all struggle with, and don't worry that you worry, but let's try, with God's help, to be a little less worried this week.

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