4-26-21 Health Seekers: Relaxation for Your Spirit, Soul and Body

Hi Friends, 

     Stress is a healthy response to the challenges of life…but chronic stress is both unhealthy and life threatening. We need to be able to run from a bear charging at us…but let’s be honest, how often does this happen?! Because our bodies cannot tell the difference between a real threat and a perceived one, we must learn ways to relax or we can cause serious injury to our physical, soulful and spiritual health. Hear the powerful words of our Lord Jesus:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Mt 11:28 NIV

     Come to Jesus. It is His pleasure to GIVE us rest. We are not bothering Jesus somehow when we begin to feel the stresses of life and come to Him. It is what He desires more than anything else. It is the reason why He came in the first place, to make it possible for us to have a relationship with God. To receive His Love, then reflect that love towards others and ourselves. This is the first and most vital step to de-stressing: come to Jesus. This is a spiritual thing. When we surrender our way, our plan our understanding and humbly come into His Presence, even when nothing changes, everything changes! We are able to sense His peace and we can rest in Him, knowing that He will either give us insight to resolve any issues, or He will help us get through it and be better off on the other side of the trial. Coming to Jesus is connecting with the Holy Spirit so we can get His comfort when needed, His insight where required and His strength when we are weak. Coming to Jesus and surrendering our lives once again, or for the very first time, is the most complete way to a life of relaxation because He is the only One able to reach all three parts of WHO we are: spirit, soul and body. He continues to heal us from the inside out as we come to Him seeking His friendship. Please never forget this is about a relationship like NO other! We come because He is a Good Father, a very best Friend and an amazing Counsellor. Everything else will flow from this relationship. We will receive whatever we need to deal with whatever is happening currently in our lives when we choose to come to Jesus.

     Stay with Jesus. Spending time with our God brings deep curative power to our souls. When our thoughts are spiraling downward, when our emotions are completely out of control and when our will is more self-destructive than helpful, staying with Jesus gives us the rest we are desperate for so that we can relax. As we stay with Jesus, He teaches us what to think, how to get our emotions to help us and not hurt us, and He directs our will so that we WILL desire the things that truly give us peace and joy. Our mental and emotional health need His wisdom, so that we can think thoughts that uplift us and others, instead of destroying. Our soulful health needs His power, so that we will not allow our emotions to control us, but we control them, using them to drive us towards the common good, instead of causing further problems. Our mind, emotions and will need His direction to light our way or we can quickly and easily get lost in the countless choices we can make in life. We need to stay with Jesus so we can learn from Him. (Mt 11:29) Jesus is our Teacher because He is the only Human that ever lived this life perfectly! This certainly does NOT mean He did not have trials! But that is not a perfect life anyway. A perfect life is one where we always choose to do God’s Will instead of ours. Why? Because God sees life from the point of view of Eternity, so only He knows the right things to think, say and do now, to get us to a good result later on. Jesus had more trials than all humans put together because only He fought sin, Satan and death and WON! When we stay with Jesus, He will teach us how He endured it all and was victorious. Please never forget this world is not our permanent Home. Paradise is waiting for us where there will be no more tears, suffering or loss…but in the meantime, we come to Jesus and stay with Him so that He can give us rest and we can have, enjoy and share the Abundant Life He desires to give us. This life, here, becomes more and more amazing when we choose to stay with Jesus. 

     Abide in Jesus. After connecting with God and then learning from Jesus how we should think, feel and choose, we then abide, or remain, in Him so we can have the power to live out what we are learning. This is when our Faith is visible to everyone around us, even ourselves. We will surprise ourselves when we say and do things in loving grace that we never were able to do before. We will be able to show God’s Mercy to those around us more effortlessly. We will be able to bless others more readily, because we will not be holding on to the treasures we have so tightly. We will be able to bring joy into hurting hearts, peace into a confusing situation, be able to point to the silver lining in dark circumstances…and we CAN do all this because we are living life attached to Jesus. (Jn 15:1-8) Living with Jesus at the center of our hearts (spirit), our thoughts, emotions and desires (soul) and our actions (body) not only gives us a more fulfilling life, but we become a door for Jesus to, once again, walk this broken and aching world. Reflecting Him is what we were made for…made in His image we were always meant to come to Him, stay with Him and abide in Him. This is where we “work out the Salvation” we already have been gifted by God’s Grace and through our Faith. (see Php 12:2 and Eph 2:8) We live out our New Creation and reap all the benefits of this New Life in Christ. This does not mean things will go smoothly, of course. We are Children of God and children are still growing, learning, maturing and messing up. It is a learning curve…but this is exactly why it is imperative to abide in Jesus. 

     Come, stay and abide. Spirit, soul and body. As we practice this New Life in Christ by first being aware we must do these things, then actually doing them, everyone wins. God is glorified, others are blessed by us and we have and enjoy the Abundant Life filled to the overflow with Peace and Joy and Righteousness in the Holy Spirit that will give us that relaxation we truly desire, no matter what is going on in our world. I know I want this more and more. How about you? Then won’t you join me?

     Until we meet again, keep lifting your eyes to God, He’s closer than you think.

<>< Peace, Diane