“This Stress Is Killing Me!”

Published almost twenty years ago, “Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To” by Anthony DeStefano changed how I pray and how I experience God’s answers to my prayer. I’ll be spending the next few weeks talking about what I got from his book, and how applying the principles in this book to my own life changed me.

DeStefano begins this chapter with asking if we have ever said to ourselves “The stress is killing me! It really is!” I had to smile when I read the question. Who has not felt stressed out from time to time?

Panic Attack

Sometimes stress shows up in anxiety attacks—pounding heart, shortness of breath, that tight feeling in your chest, tunnel vision, dizziness, dry mouth. Have you experienced one of those?  Headaches, distracted thoughts, short memories, even shorter fuses, stress is bad news.

As DeStefano points out, it is impossible to enjoy life, no matter how good it is, without peace in our inner beings. A person can have youth, health, beauty, wealth, an amazing job, the love of their life, a wonderful family … but if you or I are feeling stressed out, then every day can feel like a nightmare. On the other hand, if a person has peace within themselves, then they can handle anything life brings along.

I think of the apostle Paul, and how he talked about his own anxiety, writing,

“I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches.”

2 Corinthians 11:28 NRSVUE

It is possible Paul wrote often about not being anxious because he was going through his own personal trial of learning how to manage anxiety and stress. Towards the end of his ministry career, he wrote,

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:6-7 NRSVUE

Elusive Peace

Most of us deal with anxiety and stress on a daily basis. We live in the information age, with noise all around us, the bombardment of TikTok reels, Facebook and Insta posts, forums, YouTube, podcasts, newsfeeds, the weather, advertisements. We live in a tension-filled, pressure-packed kind of culture. You and I try to cope, maybe with healthy methods, maybe with not so healthy methods. What makes serenity so elusive today?  Why is it so hard to find peace?

Paul also lived a pressure-packed life. He may not have had today’s electronics, but he was often on the road, and in between the glorious experiences of bringing people to faith and teaching people how to follow Jesus, Paul faced quite a lot of opposition. As a minister of Christ, Paul had

“… far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death.

• Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.
• Three times I was beaten with rods.
• Once I received a stoning [and Paul was left for dead. Some people think Paul did die and was brought back to life]
• Three times I was shipwrecked;
• for a night and a day I was adrift at sea;
• on frequent journeys,
• in danger from rivers,
• danger from bandits,
• danger from my own people,
• danger from gentiles,
• danger in the city,
• danger in the wilderness,
• danger at sea,
• danger from false brothers and sisters;
• in toil and hardship,
• through many a sleepless night,
• hungry and thirsty, often without food,
• cold and naked.
• And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches.

“Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant?

2 Corinthians 11:23-29 NRSVUE (modifications added)

So, one of the most powerful prayers God always says yes to is “Please give me peace.” 

Inner Peace

People have a mistaken idea about what peace is. The kind of inner peace that God gives goes beyond the kind of peace that can be achieved through mental discipline, because it is based in a relationship rather than in a technique. The kind of inner peace that God gives is not dependent on outside events. Certainly, slowing down our breaths, getting ourselves regrounded in reality, marshalling our thoughts to keep them from spinning out of control are all wise and good coping mechanisms. God’s peace goes farther.

This kind of peace may be accessed at any time. It is a gift from God that comes by faith, having a genuine relationship with God. This kind of peace cannot exist apart from God because it is part of God’s very nature. God brought peace and order to the chaos in Genesis 1. Peace and order go together. When Jesus commanded the storms to calm down he would say “Be still.”

Shalom

At the end of his ministry, Jesus said to his disciples, “I leave you peace” and “My peace I give to you” (John 14:27, 16:33). Then, when Jesus rose from the dead, it became his greeting as soon as he was reunited with his disciples, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19, 21, 26)

The peace of God, the peace that Jesus gives, is shalom, a sense of wholeness and health, of all that is good and rich, it evokes a sense of emotional prosperity, for it restores our depleted inner resources. The Shalom of Christ brings a sense of settled completeness.

How quickly will you and I sense God’s peace?

God’s Nature

That depends on how close our relationship is with the Lord. Since peace is God’s nature, and God’s nature fills the believer through God’s indwelling Holy Spirit, the question really becomes, how much of our inner life have you or I surrendered to the Lord? Does Jesus’s Spirit fill us? Does Jesus occupy our thoughts, does Jesus direct the desires of our hearts? Or are you, am I, holding the Lord at arm’s length, closing off parts of our inner life to God?

The more of us that we give to the Lord to fill, the more we will sense Jesus’s peace flooding our souls, that quiet, confident faith that pushes out fear, stress, and anxiety.

Paul mentioned peace in some way at least forty-five times in his letters, praying peace for each of his coworkers, for all the churches, and for the Body of Christ. Peace, Paul wrote, is the fruit of the Spirit, something supernatural that spreads throughout our inner beings through the divine power of God. Paul prayed,

“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord be with all of you.”

2 Thessalonians 3:16 NRSVUE

A Life of Peace

Once you and I are connecting with God, asking God for this kind of inner peace, the Lord may begin to point things out to us. There is a possibility some of the peace we are so yearning for will be linked to outer change. Maybe there is a lifestyle issue that is causing you or me anxiety. God will show it to us. Maybe there is some unfinished business causing blanket stress. God will bring that up. DeStefano reminds us that God will always give us peace, but God will give peace to us on God’s terms, sometimes helping us restructure, rearrange, and rebuild our lives to become more aligned with God’s purpose and way.

Are you and I ready for that, when we pray for peace?

Because when you and I pray “Please, God, give me peace,” what God will give goes way beyond emotions. True peace is union with God, being right with God and intimately involved with the Lord.

[Cover Photo: Photo by Samuel Martins on Unsplash]