When Pressures Build Up
"Are you living lie in overdrive? Do you ever feel like running away, checking out, giving up?"
Life is filled with pressure, pressure, pressure.
Pressure to be.
Pressure to do.
Pressure to perform.
Pressure to produce.
And with the pressures come anxiety and stress, especially to the Christian who longs to be pleasing to God.
Am I being the mate I should be? The parent I should be? Am I handling everything the way I ought to as His child?
Life is so accelerated. Hurrying to work. Dashing to get the kids to their activities. Hurrying to prepare meals. Rushing to get to church.
You think you're going to slow down when the kids get back to school...come winter...come Christmas...come summer...come vacation.
But it doesn't happen. Or if you do slow down, it's not for long. Pretty soon you're back again in overdrive.
Realistically, life is never going to slow down; the pressure is never going to lessen; the stress will always be there in one form or another. So what are going doing to do about it? Tought it out until you break? Run into some ungodly escape hatch? Give up? Check out?
The good news is: You don't have to choose any of the above. God knows about the pressure, the stress, the anxiety, the accelerated pace of our earthly life, and He has provided a "way of escape...so that you will be able to endure it" (1 Corinthinans 10:13).
It's all wrapped up in our communion with God, what I call "going into the snactuary." And there is one element of communion with God that I believe is a vital key to releasing pressure or stress. That key is worship through music: praising God in song. Let me share some Scriptures that show this to be true.
During Paul's second missionary journey, the apostle and his compatriot Silas found their ministry causing a riot, and they felt the brunt of it. Their clothes were torn from them, and they were beaten and thrown in prison.
Stress? Yes!
Anxiety? Every legitimate reason for it!
How did Paul and Silas handle it? What kept them from breaking?
Acts 16:25 gives us the answer: "But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God." They turned their focus from the present pressures of their lives to the throne of their sovereign Abba Father- and the tension was relieved.
When sheep become tense, edgy, and restless, the shepard will quietly move through the flock, and his very presence will release the tension of the sheep and quiet their anxieties. Their shepard is there!
And this is what happens when we begin to worship our Lord and our God in song. We move into a consciousness of His presence, and the tension begins to unravel, the tautness of the pressure eases, anxieties become meaningless, for we are reminded that He is there- our Jehovah Shammah, our all-sufficient, sovereign God. He inhabits the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3).
Songs that stir your soul to worship, songs that bring tears of gratitude to your eyes, songs that cause a throbbing of holy passion for Christlikeness to swell within your breast. Songs that make you want to fall on your face or leap to your feet also have a physical effect upon your body, bringing sanctified release to physical tension.
Singing spiritual songs and making melody in your heart is God's way of delivering you from the stresses of the world.
"You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance"
(Psalm 32:7).
Praising the Lord in song during my time alone with Him has drawn me into a depth of worship that I have never experienced before. The words of the music are engraved upon the tables of my heart and become an ever-present song upon my lips.
Try it. Make it a practice to worship God in song every day. Try beginning your day in song. Put your tape recorder in your bathroom or bedroom and play a worship tape while you're bathing and dressing. Sing in the shower. Carry tapes in your car to use as background music for singing His praises. Play music while you do housework. But, above all, make time daily to be alone and do nothing else but worship God in song.
The more you enter into His courts with praise and into His gates with thanksgiving, the less you will feel the stress, the pressure, the anxiety of daily life, for you will have...
"set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:2-3).
(Arthur, 2002, pp. 42-44)
Okay, my first response to this is "heck yea!" Life is soooo stressful. My life radically changed almost 17 months ago and the stress level went through the roof! Not only was I dealing with the sleepless nights and growing demands of my daughter (for those that don't know me, I exclusively pumped breastmilk for her until her first birthday), but I was also dealing with work, taking online classes, my relationship with my hubby and the wierd changes going on with my body (yes, ladies....nothing is ever the same after giving birth). Talk about stress! There were many many days when I just wanted to give up, check out, run away!
I believe that what allowed me to survive this period of change was taking time to get out of the house to paint while listening to Klove. When I allowed myself this time to rekindle my passion for creating and doing it in the presence of worship songs, peace reigned. To this day, I still find my best focus and my best creative atmosphere in the presence of songs worshiping God. With a little girl sleeping a few doors down, its not always possible to be blaring the music, but I can still softly tune in and allow myself to just let those cares fall away.
Now, this typically doesn't work if you are just listening to music with just any old lyrics. Many of today's popular songs (and even some of those good old songs from days gone by) speak to the trials and joys of life. This can be good, but too often they bring more pressure instead of relief. If you are missing a loved one or having problems with your relationship, listening to a song about heartbreak or cheating or even love is not going to take the pressure or stress away. However, turning that focus off your brokeness to God's grace and everlasting love, will undoubtedly allow the pressure to cease.
For those of you that are saying you don't have a Christian station, look into Klove. You can listen anywhere from Klove.com (I stream it from my phone). Right now I know they are doing the 30 day challenge were you listen to nothing but Christian radio. I challenge those that are stressed and feeling the pressure, to take that challenge and see how entering the presence of God daily changes your life.
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