Stressed Out: High Expectations

When I was attending the university I was a student athletic trainer (sports therapy). During my first year there (I came in as a junior), the softball coach, who had been there several years was requiring that his players weigh in regularly. So, they had to come in to the Training Room and tell the supervising student trainer their weight. This weight was recorded, and, presumably, compared.

Long story short, two of the coach’s players became anorexic. Not just a bit, but severely anorexic. To the point of noticeably pale skin, passing out multiple times, and going to therapy. I remember witnessing these two females working out, wrapped up in hoodies to burn off extra body weight. Was this coach’s expectations of them too high? Or did the coach make a mistake in judgment trying to create a competitive team?

Sometimes we may view the “ideal” of what God expects of us like these girls viewed their coach’s request. No doubt the girls, more than these two, were under stress to try to maintain a status quo on the softball team. Being expected to do things beyond our presumed abilities will create much stress in our lives, possibly causing us to be “stressed out”. That brings us to what we talked about Sunday in the first of our four-part series. Here are some applications to choose from to use this week…

• When God “Expects” He Assures ~ Genesis 12:1-3 is not the only place that we can find God providing assurance. There are multiple places that God gives us all the assurance we could possibly need to follow His directions. This section of text we highlighted showed God telling Abram (not yet Abraham) to go to the unknown land. But he follows it up with statements of assurance. Make Abram into a great nation. He and others will be blessed. There will be protection. Also, Abram will be influential. God doesn’t just abandon us when He asks us to do things, even walk through life – He’ll be there!
• Assurance Doesn’t Mean “Clear Sailing” ~ If you were to pray for something risky and it worked out, you’d probably have an increased faith and appreciation in God. However, if it didn’t work out, would your faith and appreciation descend? In several people it would. If we think that just because something doesn’t work out that it is a result of God “picking on us” or just not in favor of us, we are immature in our thinking. Start looking at any result as positive. God knows if you need it or if there is something better for you in the future. Thinking this way will help take some stress away.
• Don’t Just Sit There ~ Abram would have never been able to see his “promised land” if he would have remained where he was at. Getting up and heading toward a destination is a key to getting us somewhere in life. Also, to see what God has in store for us, we must move. Moving is key to arriving at a destination.

God’s expectations are not as “high” as we tend to think. Going against what God is asking us can be too energy-expending that we waste the time that could have been spent on doing what God expects of us.

Use less energy and reduce stress by doing what we see as God’s expectations…

Here is a key verse in this lesson…

Give all [my] worries and cares to God, for he cares about [me] (1 Peter 5:7 NLT).