Devotionals for the Heart: Give your stress to God and watch Him work

Trusting God with the stresses of life 
A devotional by Hannah Benson

“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

—Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV)

I’ve got to be honest. Recently, I’ve found myself getting stressed out a lot for a variety of different reasons. Maybe you can relate?

So many times, I find myself getting easily distracted by either a project that overwhelms me or a looming deadline. Let’s face it. We live in a stressful world, and there are deadlines that approach faster than we’re ready for. In the midst of feeling stressed about some deadlines that I had to meet for a course I was taking, I felt God reminding me to trust Him. I feel like learning to trust God has been a theme for me this entire year as there have been a lot of situations out of my control.

Stress would come out of nowhere, about anything, and doubts would run through my mind. Will I be able to make this deadline? What if the project I’m working on falls through? Whenever I would start to panic, God would gently remind me to trust Him and to give my stress and worry to Him. After all, He can carry it better than I can. It is like a weight comes off our chests when we give our worries and cares over to God. We are not meant to carry that burden.

When we truly give our cares up to God, the result is a deeper trust in Him and a more peaceful life. I found, when the first stressful situation came and went, that God was right. (No surprise there!) Looking back, I realized that there had been no reason to stress out because He provided and met every single one of my needs when I trusted Him. Friend, there is freedom found when we trust in Jesus Christ, and we realize that even if things don’t turn out exactly the way we would like, God is still sovereign. He’s still in control, and nothing happens that God does not allow for our good.

Now, that’s not to say that it’s always easy for me to relinquish control of a situation. But it does mean that when I started to feel stressed again, this time about a project that wasn’t coming together the way I had planned and looked like it was going to fall through, I remembered God’s faithfulness to me. Despite my natural tendency to be in control, by God’s grace, I was able to give the situation to God, and again, He was faithful and provided everything we needed right on time.

Dear friend, if you give those stresses in your life to God, it’s not only a perfect opportunity for you to see His faithfulness, but it will also relieve your shoulders of the burdens they’ve been carrying for too long.

Let’s Pray:

Dear Father God, whenever there are stressful situations in my life, please help me to give them to You. You say in Your Word for me to cast my cares on You because You care for me. It is so hard, but I know that there is freedom in letting go of my stresses and concerns. Please forgive me for not trusting You enough to believe You can handle it. In Jesus’s Name I pray. Amen.

Song of Reflection: “Never Once” by Matt Redman. Listen to it here.

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Author Bio:

Hannah Benson is a Jesus-follower who’s passionate about sharing the love of Christ with others. 

From the time she could hold a pen, she was writing. But it wasn’t until she was sixteen that she began to seriously follow God’s calling to write a novel. Hannah is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and has at least four novels in the works. For the past five years, she has been involved with her local Biblical theater company. She wants to show others the love of Jesus through the creative arts.

When she’s not acting or working on her upcoming novel, you can find Hannah laughing with her siblings, cuddling her little fluffy dog, or reading books (usually historical fiction or fantasy stories). You can read more of Hannah’s writings on her blog or on her Instagram where she strives to write content that leaves others feeling encouraged.

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Connect with Hannah:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahlynnauthor/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Hannah-Lynn-Writer/100073790792576/
Blog: www.loveunconditional.blog