7 Affirmations of Faith

Yesterday at Van Dyke Church our Pastor, Matthew Hartsfield, continued his sermon series entitled Help!  After sharing the previous few weeks on the subjects of marriage, finances and children, Matthew turned his attention to the topic of stress. We learned that Forbes Magazine recently ranked Tampa as the 4th most stressful city in USAmerica, so stress is a part of all of our lives. He talked about how God designed our bodies to handle immediate stress, such as emergency situations and "flight or fight" reactions, but not to deal with the chronic day-to-day stress so many of us have in our lives today.  He spoke of the Apostle Paul and all of the stresses he faced in his life, as found in 2 Corinthians 11:23-33, and how he still kept his eyes on the joy of following Jesus. And finally he taught about the antidotes to stress as found in 2 Corinthians 4.  That antidote is Jesus.

At the conclusion of worship we all received the card you see below. Our challenge was to memorize the scripture and keep the affirmations that will help reduce our stress front and center in our lives.  I offer you that same challenge today. There will be stress in our lives, but we need not carry it.  Turn it over to Jesus. Or as Ray Lewis said (Paul said it first) at the conclusion of last night's game, "If God is for us, who (or what) can be against us?"  NO ONE!  Have a blessed and stress free day!

Because of Jesus,