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Count it pure joy!. Holmes-Rahe External Stress Level Test. Go through the list. Circle the number of any experience you’ve had in the past year. Total up your points. What happens to you doesn’t determine the amount of physiological stress.
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Holmes-Rahe External Stress Level Test • Go through the list. • Circle the number of any experience you’ve had in the past year. • Total up your points.
What happens to you doesn’t determine the amount of physiological stress. • How you inwardly perceive and process outward pressure determines the amount of emotional and physiological stress in your body.
James 1:2-5 • Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Consider it pure joy Attempt to control Withdraw, self-protect Anger, impatience, fume, resentful, bitterness Grumble, complain, blame Fear, anxiety, worry Your response to stressors?
not lacking anything so that you may be mature and complete Perseverance must finish its work develops perseverance because you know the testing of your faith Consider it pure joy • whenever you face trials of many kinds
Break it down • because you know • You are sure by study, experience and trust • the testing • the revealing of the content, strength and nature • of your faith • The actual status of your trusting relationship with God according to what you know about His very nature plus the extent that you believe what He did for you and who you are as a result.
Romans 5:1-5 • Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. • Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; • perseverance, character; and character, hope. • And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
The New You! • Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 • You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24 • His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 2 Peter 1:3-4
"When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.
This seed: the supernatural nature of the recreated human spirit, reconciled to God through Jesus’ death, dearly loved by God - a heart full of peace and joy, - a lifestyle of love and power! But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." Matthew 13:18-23
not lacking anything • so that you may be • mature and complete • Perseverance must finish its work • develops perseverance because you know the testing of your faith Consider it pure joy • whenever you face trials of many kinds React badly the testing of your faith exposes inadequacies Confess, ask God for wisdom and insight Downward spiral The pits
John 15:9-13 • "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. • I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. • My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
Peace • Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27 • "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33
Into the Crisis • Count it pure joy is the first step. This tunes your heart for what to do next. • You have to be a different class of being to pull this off! Supernatural perspective and supernatural power! • You’ll need wisdom, power and love to respond to a crisis and to others involved in it and to other people around you during it. • When it’s time to act, you’ll need a heart of peace from which to speak, make decisions and to take action.
“Consider it pure joy” • You don’t have to feel happy about the trial. • You do have to start with a heart of peace and joy or know how to get there. • That means that, built into your life, is a time and place for a nurturing relationship with God where you rest in His care, trust Him and receive His love and security.
