The Yoke, the Burden, and the Stress

The evolutionary community is in a defensive frenzy. According to the very alarmed Professor of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University, "The success of the ID (Intelligent Design) movement to date is terrifying. In at least 40 states, ID is being considered as an addition to the required science curriculum in public schools." [End of quote] Intelligent Design is another way of saying "God-created," no matter how some of the ID people try to dodge or camouflage it.

In spite of evolution’s willing cohorts in academia and in all forms of media, they have failed miserably to win the American mind. Imagine that 67% of the American people believe that God created the heavens and the earth, and 45% actually believe it is very young. And to the evolutionists’ claim that the rank and file are too stupid to understand their erudite cogitations, arguably the most educated among us believe in God very firmly. The world’s most educated people populate the field of medicine, and supporters of evolution they are not. An article published by Business Wire, December 20, 2004, was a review of a national survey of 1,100 physicians.

• 74% of doctors believe that miracles have occurred.

• 73% believe they can occur today.

• 72% of American physicians believe religion provides a reliable and necessary guide to life.

• 58% attend worship services at least one time per month.

• 67% believe the Bible was inspired by God.

• 55% of doctors said they have seen treatment results in their patients that they would consider miraculous.

• 51% pray for their patients as a group.

• 59% pray for individual patients.

• 67% of America’s physicians encourage their patients to pray.

This survey was conducted by HCD Research and the Louis Finkelstein Institute of New York City. Click on to "Evolution Continues To Collapse...Now What?" for more information on this subject.

For those of you who have not surrendered your life unto the Creator of the universe, click on to "Further With Jesus" for information about entry into the eternal Kingdom of God. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Matthew 11:28-30:

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

GOD SAID, Philippians 4:6:

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

MAN SAID: The solution to destructive stress is to have your head examined or to dope-up the individual to mask the devastating effects. Jesus Christ is certainly not the answer.

Now THE RECORD. The promises of God are a two-way street. It’s common for Christians to embrace only one way—the part of the promise that appears to benefit oneself. A covenant, or contract, is only binding when the legal term consideration is present. Consideration requires the giving of a measurable benefit by both parties entering into the covenant. The Word of God is a covenant—a written legal document—and it does require two actions to be binding. Psalm 50:16-17:

16 But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?

17 Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.

Two ways are required, and so it is with the promises quoted in the beginning of this article. As we continue, the secret of two-wayness will become obvious.

All of God’s good promises require faith in order for one to participate in them. Hebrews 11:6 reads:

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

And in Hebrews 4:2:

For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

The powerful concept of Holy Ghost stress-shifting, which this article will address, requires that Christians mix the Word of God with faith.

The perfectness of the Word of God on the issue of stress, given thousands of years before "stress" even entered the human lexicon, will prove once again the veracity of the Word of God. On GodSaidManSaid there are numerous features dealing with the magnificent secret of stress-shifting. At the end of this article, you will find a list of them. Stress, stress-related illness, anxiety and panic attacks, and more can be a thing of the past by applying the secrets of the Word of God.

Dr. D. Colbert, in his book Deadly Emotions, points out an assessment made by the American Institute of Stress reported in USA Today under the heading "Job Stress: America’s Leading Adult Health Problem." The article claimed that 75-90% of all visits to primary care physicians result from stress-related disorders. Again from Deadly Emotions:

A heart disease study at the Mayo Clinic found that psychological stress was the strongest predictor of future cardiac events, including cardiac death, cardiac arrest, and heart attack. [End of quote]

Under the heading "Health News," Prevention magazine reported the following:

More than 100 people with type 2 diabetes took five diabetes-education classes either with or without stress-management training. After 1 year, more than half of the stress-relief group improved sugar significantly, enough to lower their risk for the worst diabetes-related complications, such as heart disease, kidney failure, nerve damage, and vision problems. [End of quote]

The following paragraphs are from WebMD under the title "Mental Stress, Physical Illness:"

Hiroyaso Iso, MD, of the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki-ken, Japan, gathered information from more than 73,000 Japanese men and women aged 40-79. Each of the study participants completed a lifestyle survey that included questions about perceived stress levels. The researchers monitored their health for about eight years.

Nearly 9,000 women and 7,000 men reported high mental stress. Researchers found that women in the high-stress group were more than twice as likely as those with low stress to suffer a stroke or develop heart disease. This held true even after accounting for other potential causes.

High-stress women were also more likely than their relaxed counterparts to report a history of high blood pressure or diabetes. The stressed-out women tended to be younger, more educated, and less physically active.

In addition, researchers say that these high-stress women were also more likely to be angry, be in a hurry, feel hopeless, and feel unfulfilled.

The study found the overall link between mental stress and cardiovascular disease in general to be stronger among women than men. But men who reported medium or high levels of mental stress were nearly twice as likely to suffer a heart attack.

Stress is a killer and God’s plan for shifting stress is truly life and life more abundantly. Coming unto God in prayer and mixing the Word of God with faith yield phenomenal results. Concerning prayer, a subhead in a March 2006 article in the magazine First reads, "The silent dialogue proven to reduce stress-hormone levels by 40%—and melt away 36% more body fat." The following excerpt is from that article:

To understand the mechanism behind the miracle, we turned to world-renowned expert Harry G. Koenig, M.D., of Duke University and coauthor of The Healing Power of Prayer (Baker Books, 2003). "An ongoing dialogue with a higher power calms the amygdala, the brain’s stress-serenity command center," he explains. "It also increases activity of the brain’s soothing alpha waves. This prevents the adrenal glands from releasing a flood of harmful cortisol." In fact, a study from the Shimane Institute of Health Science in Japan found that this type of calming activity reduced cortisol by up to an astounding 40 percent.

That can translate into major weight loss, maintains Shawn Talbott, Ph.D., author of The Cortisol Connection (Hunter House, 2002): "In my research, those who reduced cortisol by 20 percent lost nine times more weight, including 18 percent more body fat and 9 percent more belly fat." [End of quote]

Coming to Christ and surrendering one’s life to Him clearly shifts stress, but in order for Christ to work effectively, the principle of the two-way street must be employed. The first verse of the Matthew 11 promise reads (verse 28):

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

As beautiful as verse 28 is, it needs the next two verses to fulfill its abilities to give rest and this passage is generally overlooked. Verses 29 and 30 read:

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

The consideration of the contract that we supply is defined in those two verses. Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you," which needs to be harnessed with Christ to pull the plow of salvation. This would include such things as follow:

• Reaching out to lost souls

• Ministering to the sick, the poor, the imprisoned, the widows and orphans

• Sharing of our resources to help underwrite the efforts of the gospel

• Prayer and supplication for those among us who are in need

• Encouraging those who are in trouble

• Laboring on the job ethically and industriously as unto the Lord, and more.

Next, Jesus said, "and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart:" To learn of Christ requires that I study the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, which is the source of our understanding of the Lord. It is also required that we strive to put on the mind of Christ, and His mind was the mind of a servant. A believer should be immersed in the Word of God daily. In verse 30, Jesus says, "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." We are instructed to leave the heavy load of life at the feet of Christ and pick up His yoke and His burden and seek the service of the Cross.

Doing half of the contract won’t work. When you are found in the inevitable stressful situation, surrender your burden to the Lord, mixing the Word of God with faith. I John 5:13-15:

13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

Then take up His yoke and His burden "and ye shall find rest unto your souls."

GOD SAID, Matthew 11:28-30:

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

GOD SAID, Philippians 4:6:

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

MAN SAID: The solution to destructive stress is to have your head examined or to dope-up the individual to mask the devastating effects. Jesus Christ is certainly not the answer.

Now you have THE RECORD.




Stress-Related Subjects on GodSaidManSaid:

Some of the Greatest Principles of All Time, Part One, Brains and Words

Some of the Greatest Principles of All Time, Part Two, Setting the Table

Some of the Greatest Principles of All Time, Part Three, Harnessing the Supernatural Power of Words

Rest From Stress

Shifting Stress

God Requires What You Can’t Handle

A Merry Heart or a Broken Spirit

More Life- Enhancing Information Pours In!

The Superhuman Brain

The Superhuman Brain II

Nocebo, Placebo, and You

References:

Authorized King James Version

Allison, Williams, Miller, "Medical and Economic Costs of Psychologic Distress in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease," Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 70 (1995): 734-742

Colbert, D., "Deadly Emotions," Thomas Nelson Publications, 2003

"Health News," Prevention, June 2002, p44

Morris, H.M., "Insufficient Design," Back To Genesis, March 2006

Rosch, P., "Job Stress: America’s Leading Adult Health Problem," USA Today, May 1991, pp42-44

Shipman, P., "Being Stalked By Intelligent Design," American Scientist (vol. 93, Nov./Dec. 2005), p502

Warner, J., "Mental Stress, Physical Illness," WebMD, 8/12/02

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