Daily Huddle - Tue Sep 10, 2019 Stressed-Out Or Stress-Free (Part 2)

Love you all, praying for you,
 
Yesterday’s Daily Huddle – Stressed-Out or Stress-Free.   If you haven’t yet, please listen to it.  It will encourage you.   Paul’s answer to stress – was to believe and speak.  We spoke of the two things most responsible for the state you are in – thoughts and habits.  And the two things that cause stress – external things and internal (self-inflicted).  Praying that you are soaking in God’s Word – PRISM Topics will help you – so you can believe and speak.  God will use PRISM (5 Things you can do daily in God’s Word) to transform your mind, and direct your thoughts.  But the thing besides thoughts - that determines “stressed out or stress free” – is habits.  Some people are stressed out because they simply are lacking sleep.   Someone once said - “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”  If you are not getting enough rest – you reduce your ability to live stress-free.  An interesting quote from WebMD - “Studies show that over time, people who are getting six hours of sleep, instead of seven or eight, begin to feel that they’ve adapted to that sleep deprivation -- they’ve gotten used to it,” Gehrman says. “But if you look at how they actually do on tests of mental alertness and performance, they continue to go downhill. So there’s a point in sleep deprivation when we lose touch with how impaired we are.”  People lack sleep because they don’t go to bed on time.  If you are stuck in that stay-up-late, get-up-late cycle…  It’s not escaped by going to bed earlier – you’re just not tired – you slept in too late.  Get up early – and the cycle will be broken.  If you get up at 5:30 or 6:00 am, you’ll go to bed on time.  Early to bed early to rise – makes one healthy, wealthy and wise. – Benjamin Franklin.  But the Bible is also full of examples of being early.  Jesus rose early, Abraham, Job, David said – “Early in the morning will I seek you.”  God is always up early – and He has good things for those who rise early to seek Him.  Here’s what God says:  Proverbs 8:17 - I love those who love me, and those who seek me early shall find me.  The second habit that contributes to stressed-out or stress-free,  is diet and exercise.  Are you eating the proper foods at the proper time?  A sugar or caffeine diet limits your ability to be stress-free.  Ask God what He wants you to eat and when, and develop the fueling habits and exercise habits your body needs.  And it will help you stay stress-free.  Third, and critically important - most people are stressed out because they don’t get God’s plan for them – which always works.  Which means they are stuck with their plans – which never work as well.  His plans are to prosper you, your plans are only what you think will prosper you – but so often it doesn’t.  PiVAT before dinner is the best habit you can develop – not only to live the life God has for you but to live it… stress-free.  If you are not following God’s plan for you today – you cannot be stress-free – you are worried about your plans which come to nothing if God is not directing them.  Sometimes He is even opposing them…  Nothing will go well in Tarsus when God told you to goto Nineveh – no matter how well you plan.  Not only PiVAT before dinner – but PiVAT Weekly – helps you see what God wants you to do over time.  You get His rhythm, and grow in faith as you obey and see His confirmation and the blessing He gives along with it.  PiVAT Weekly and PiVAT Monthly will set your course – and help you see His faithfulness.  You will live stress-free.  Finally – many people are stressed out because they don’t distinguish between PiVAT and PiVAT Maybe.  There are many things your enemy tries to fill your mind with – that are not God’s todo’s for you or God’s todo’s for you at this time.  Anytime you are thinking about what God has not told you to do right now… not only are you not doing what He wants – you’re stressing about things He doesn’t have for you right now.  Fourth - PIVAT Maybe helps you live Stress-Free!  Learn to distinguish between PiVAT’s right column – God’s todo’s for you for today, and PiVAT Maybe – your list of ‘gotta do’s’ for God to confirm, delay or delete.  See Relationship Topic – How2 PiVAT Maybe.  Finally - learn a critical life skill.  It’s called Front Load.  Front Load is the opposite of procrastination.  Frontload is not waiting til the last minute, just the opposite, it’s dedicating the first minute and every available minute that God directs until the task or assignment is finished.  Work first, play later.  Diligence is best done first, not later.  Just like lacking sleep – deprives you of sober judgment of the amount of sleep you need, so does procrastination.  Some people say “they work better under pressure.”  Translation, they have never learned the life skill of Front-Loading – so they rationalize their lack of discipline by claiming they work better that way.  Procrastination is stressful.  What does it mean to procrastinate?  Leaving for later, what you should do now.  Frontloading is stress-free – it’s doing now what you should do now, so later you have options.  So God can lead you to love and serve others.  When you put all your energy into what God told you to do immediately – it lets you finish – which frees you for the next thing He has for you.  Opportunities to minister to others – because while they are scrambling to complete what they procrastinated, you have front loaded, and are available to love and serve.  Stressed-Out or Stress-free – most often are determined by thoughts and habits.  These habits of rest, diet, PiVAT, PiVAT Weekly and PiVAT Monthly, understanding PiVAT vs PiVAT Maybe, and Frontloading – are God’s Way versus Man’s Way.  First, fill your thoughts with God’s Word – use your mouth.  I believed therefore I have spoken.   And then – establish the habits God has for you!  See PRISM Topic – Habits.  God’s Way always produces a stress-free life, a blessed life, an abundant life.  You will live stress-free when everyone around you is stressed out.  You will be free to love and serve, and God will use you to encourage many.  The joy of the LORD will be your strength, and obedience will always add blessing to your life. 
 
Love you all,
dad