Do you find yourself in any of those categories? Are you in a relationship right now that is a constant drain on your time, energy and finances without adding anything valuable back into your life? Do you say yes to projects because you don’t know how to say no and then find yourself wishing you never signed up?

If you find yourself in a state of being perpetually tired and stressed, ask the Lord to reveal why you are experiencing that. Ask Him how you should address those areas. He will show you how to prioritize the activities and release the baggage you have if you follow His instructions.

To be stressed is to not trust God. Trust Him with every detail of your life. You have seen how the vision for your life is coming to fruition. Why would God leave you hanging now? Give all that doubt and negativity to Him and exchange it for joy and peace of mind instead.

Matthew 11:28-30 (New International Version)

28″Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

This past Sunday my Pastor preached from Isaiah 66:9, “Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?” says the LORD.”Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?” says your God.” (NIV) Her message brought to mind the scariest day of my life when I could have lost the child I had been carrying for nine months.

I was at the hospital experiencing contractions when the nurse told me she couldn’t find my son’s heartbeat. My mind could not fathom what she was saying at first. I looked at the monitor and saw a line but there was no blip of activity there. Surely this woman didn’t know what she was doing! She tried to find it again and there it was, but she explained that his heart rate was very slow and it declined every time I experienced contractions. Suddenly I was being rushed away and prepared for a Cesarean section.

When the reality of what was happening fully reached my brain I started freaking out. This caused my son’s heart rate to slow down even more. The nurse began to sternly warn me that I needed to calm down because I was putting stress on the baby and we did not want his heart rate to continue dropping. I listened to her and started to breathe.

I began to pray and realized that it was God’s Divine provision that caused me to select an Obstetrician who specialized in high risk births. I was not high risk when I came to her, but now that we were in an emergency situation, I knew I was in good hands. I was still upset, but God’s peace began to take over. My son was born and he was perfect except for some fluid that he inhaled. I worried when I found out he would be in intensive care for a week but when I saw him, I knew that he was going to be fine.

Lesson learned: God wants us to turn to Him when life tells us to panic. Rather than lose our heads or think that God has forsaken us, He wants us to trust Him. When there is no activity on the monitor, in your finances or at work, trust Him. If it seems like His plan has been aborted, trust Him. When the situation does not unfold the way we envisioned, God is still working His Plan. Flip that panic switch to faith mode and get ready to receive the Promises of God!

Isaiah 66:9 (New King James Version)

Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?” says the LORD.“ Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb?” says your God.

Isaiah 14:24 (New International Version)

The LORD Almighty has sworn,
“Surely, as I have planned, so it will be,
and as I have purposed, so it will stand.

Sometimes we have to learn when to be quiet. I am still learning how to go to the Lord in prayer before I pick up the phone and talk to anyone who will listen about my problems. I am also learning that sometimes my thoughts/emotions are not worth paying attention to at all!

Have you ever had a day where it seemed like everything was going wrong? You woke up to the bright morning sunshine, sang in the shower, felt like a million bucks as you walked out your front door but then the whole thing started to unravel like that pesky thread on an old sweater. What in the world is going on? I have sometimes wished for a “do-over” on days like this.

The last time this happened to me, I got really frustrated. But even in the midst of my frustration I asked God what to do. I needed to know what my next steps should be before an already confusing day turned into an absolute wreckage. Somehow in the midst of my aggravation and anxiety, I followed instructions and found some unforeseen blessings and answered prayers.

I saw how God was working things out and I wished I had never entertained worry and frustration. It feels like such a waste of energy when I know that God is perfecting all that concerns me. I wish I would have ignored the text message when Fear tried to reach me. I wish my ringer was off so that I missed it when Doubt called. When the rough days come, I think its best if I just take them in silence. I can pray to keep the peace and praise God to keep the joy. Otherwise, I’m not letting any other calls get through.

Lamentations 3:25-31 (The Message)

^25-27God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,
to the woman who diligently seeks.
It’s a good thing to quietly hope,
quietly hope for help from God.
It’s a good thing when you’re young
to stick it out through the hard times.

^28-30When life is heavy and hard to take,
go off by yourself. Enter the silence.
Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions:
Wait for hope to appear.
Don’t run from trouble. Take it full-face.
The “worst” is never the worst.

³¹Why? Because the Master won’t ever
walk out and fail to return.

“Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning.” Joy surely does come in the morning with the light of the sun! Sometimes we just have to encourage ourselves in the Lord.

Yesterday was one of the most emotional, miserable days I have had in a long while and not for any real reason other than it is just part of life sometimes.  I had to press my way in prayer the whole day in order to keep from dwelling on negative thoughts.

I thank God for the people He sent across my path with an encouraging word yesterday. It really does help to have people in your life who hear from God and have something good to share.

So this morning I wake, still trusting the Lord to work out every situation that concerns me and my family, and I feel my joy returning. I feel my strength being renewed! I know that He never leaves me or forsakes me. Even when it seems that He is silent, I can trust that He is still there. He has shown His Love for me time after time and I have so much to be thankful for.

Thank You Lord for catching my tears, for lifting my spirit, for refreshing me in Your Presence. Thank you for lifting my chin ever so gently and telling me that I am Yours and I do not have to worry. I love You.

If you are going through a difficult situation today, I pray that you would pick up your face with me. Let us look to the Hills because that is where our helping is coming from. The Lord our God, strong and mighty will take care of it. Place it in His hands while we focus on His goodness.

Psalm 30:4-5 (New King James Version)

⁴ Sing praise to the LORD, you saints of His,
And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.^[a]
5 For His anger is but for a moment,
His favor is for life;
Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy comes in the morning.

Psalm 42:11 (The Message)

¹¹ Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
He’s my God.

Psalm 42:11 (New King James Version)

¹¹ Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.

A couple of years ago I found myself always feeling tired, stressed and burnt out. The every day balancing act of work, family and school left me feeling depressed at times, like I had no life. I felt that in the midst of all my activity, nothing I was doing was really being done well. If I accomplished anything, I didn’t recognize it or celebrate it because I was too exhausted to simply enjoy life.

I had to be reminded that this was not God’s design for my life. His plan does not include running me into the ground! Sometimes we take on things that He never authorized and wonder why it doesn’t seem to work. Or we engage in activities that He has blessed but in the process forsake our time with Him.

I learned, there is no peace without the Lord’s presence. You can get eight hours of sleep every night and still be worn out if you never enter into the rest of the Lord. In His rest, there is true refreshing. He lifts burdens and gives you solutions for an easier life. He helps you to not worry about the things that are beyond your control.

Your mind does not have to constantly race and calculate the next move because you have visited the place of refreshing. In this place, you are laying back in God’s chair, receiving instructions and encouragement as the angels massage your worries away.

“I’ll refresh tired bodies; I’ll restore tired souls.” Jeremiah 31:25 (MSG)

Hit refresh on the browser of your life today. Update the page with news that everything will be ok, you will survive this challenge and it will be well. Remember how He has helped you before and see that it only gets better. See the new you, rested and peaceful with energy to spare and joy running over.

Psalm 23:3  Amplified Bible

He refreshes and restores my life (my self); He leads me in the paths of righteousness [uprightness and right standing with Him--not for my earning it, but] for His name’s sake.

Due to a chapter of my life that I am overjoyed to say is now closed, I learned that it can be very easy to forget to have fun! I love to laugh, love music, love to sing and love to write but almost lost all those aspects of myself when I traveled to the depths of disgust and despair.

When you forget to cast your cares upon the Lord, you can become consumed with the stress and obstacles that you are sure to encounter. You can even become burdened with the problems of those around you. If you feel like you are stuck in a negative situation, you can begin to sink deeper in misery until it becomes extremely difficult to see your way out of it.

But thank God there is a way out! It is true that God never leaves us nor forsakes us. Solomon in his wisdom observed that certain things are just part of the seasons of life: time to be born, time to die, time to plant, time to harvest, a time to cry, a time to laugh, to mourn, a time to rejoice. He also noted that while God has given us the ability to work, He has also given us the ability to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Enjoy the benefits that come from your employer, take pleasure in the fruits of a happy marriage that you work to maintain, reap the rewards of parenting, relax in the home that you maintain, fill your moments of downtime with the things that make you smile from deep inside.

If things exist in your life that prevent you from enjoying the results of your hard work, if you are too stressed and unhappy to have fun, it is time to make some changes. Begin with putting those situations in God’s hands and engaging in something good that makes you happy.

If it sounds too simple, that’s because it’s God. He’s just good like that.

Ecclesiastes 5:18-19 (New King James Version)

¹⁸ Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage. ¹⁹ As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God.

Are you aware of the fact that you have the breath of the Almighty God flowing through you? Not only are you always in the presence of this awesome Spirit, the very same Spirit is within you and sustaining your life.

Now if the breath of God is flowing through your spiritual lungs, consider the cares of this world, the stress, depression, misery and self-destructive behaviors that we choose to engage in as deadly smoke that threatens to destroy our ability to breathe freely. These are drugs that we definitely cannot afford to inhale because they may not only destroy the physical body but have the ability to destroy our heart and mind as well.

Let’s be thankful today for the breath of God, the eternal life-giving air supply that is always available to us. Let us be aware and determine to block the activities that keep us from breathing freely.

Genesis 2:7 (New King James Version)
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.