Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

We've been talking about the very common and very real problem of stress. Today I'd like to tackle a practical suggestion for stress-reduction: spreading out the workload. There is a side of stress that is easily overlooked.

In Part One, we looked at a couple of New Testament examples (one negative—Martha, the other positive—Jesus) of people under stress. Let's now go back to the Old Testament and lift out some familiar words of hope.

There is an old Greek motto that says: YOU WILL BREAK THE BOW IF YOU KEEP IT ALWAYS BENT. Wise words, but how do we loosen the strings? Even when we make every effort to slow down and relax, others place high demands on us.

James 1:12 offers two specific promises for those who have handled troubles as they should—one for now, the other for when we stand before our Lord to receive our eternal rewards.

The third question about troubles flows from James’s answer to the first two. We can’t avoid the various troubles in life, but we can accept that God has purposed them for our good.

When the inevitable troubles of various kinds come, remember the second truth about them—they have a purpose.

As James begins his discussion of troubles, notice his word choice: “when troubles . . . come your way” (James 1:2, emphasis added).

The Bible doesn’t varnish over the rough realities of life with a thick coat of empty clichés. God’s Word meets the truth of unbudging troubles head-on.

In the northeastern United States, codfish are not only delectable, they are a big commercial business. There's a market for eastern cod all over, especially in sections farthest removed from the northeast coastline.

Ever felt sorry for certain Scriptures? I sure have. I'm talking about passages like John 3:17, Hebrews 4:13, 1 John 1:10, and Philippians 4:14. Great verses, all . . . yet the popularity of their next-door neighbors has resulted in their being virtually ignored.

As I mentioned yesterday, as stimulating and invigorating as change may be—it is never easy. And when it comes to certain habits that haunt and harm us, change can be excruciating. But it isn't impossible.

When you boil life down to the nubbies, the name of the game is change. Those who flex with the times, refuse to be rigid, resist the mold, and reject the rut—ah, those are the souls distinctively used by God. To them, change is a challenge.

If tears were indelible ink instead of clear fluid, all of us would be stained for life. The heartbreaking circumstances, the painful encounters with calamities, the brutal verbal blows we receive from the surgeon or an angry mate . . .

What is perspective? Well, it's obviously related to the way we view something. The term literally suggests "looking through . . . seeing clearly." One who views life through perspective lenses has the capacity to see things in their true relations or relative importance.

We've been talking about Jesus's parable in Mark 4:1–20 about the farmer who sows seeds in four different types of soil. As I mentioned in Part One, I'm bothered by the third group because thorns come in and destroy the healthy growth of the Christian.

Give the Reverend Dullard Drydust enough time and he will manage to confuse most sections of the Bible. Because we preachers are notorious for getting hung up on . . . theological trivia, we often shy away from those passages that appear nontechnical.

The history of great civilizations reminds me of a giant revolving door. It turns on the axis of human depravity as its movement is marked by the perimeter of time. With monotonous repetition each civilization has completed the same cycle.

Each morning you awaken to an unpredictable set of hours filled with surprises and trials and anxieties. You know before your feet ever touch the floor you are in for another who-knows-what day.

Those folks who used to put together Campus Life magazine got my vote. With an incredible regularity they would put the cookies on the lower shelf so that any high schooler in America could thumb through the thing without getting turned off.

Strange, isn't it, how we tend toward extremes? What begins as self-improvement becomes self-enslavement . . . what starts as merely a mellow change of pace leads to a marathon of fanaticism. We're nuts! Left to ourselves, we'll opt for extremes most every time.