Have you ever suffered from dys ease?  Today we spell this word disease and use it for almost any malady of sickness.  The original prefix of “dys,”  meaning “not,” simply meant “not at ease.”  Ever been not at ease?  Perhaps daily we encounter situations that bring us to this place we are all too often acquainted with.  Our bodies are like shock absorbers on a car.  Without them, we would feel each and every bump, but with them the ride is smooth.  Long-term stress will actually begin to break down the body, inhibit its ability to absorb the ongoing shocks.  My wife is a nurse and she reveals to me that most of her patients are experiencing some form of major stress in their life, consequently they manifest physical abnormalities with their bodies like migraines, digestive problems, muscle problems and of course nervous conditions.

The Bible agrees with this when it says, “An anxious heart weighs a man down.” Proverbs 12:25.  The Law of Attribution teaches that if we believe something to be stressful, it will be stressful.  How are you handling stress each day?  What do you practice so that your body does not break down under stress?  Have you ever stopped to listen to your self-talk in order to discover what you are thinking prior to feeling stress?  To feel stressed, we must be thinking stressful thoughts.  To think stressful thoughts we must believe that the situation is stress producing.  But Isaiah 26 verse 3 says, “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.”  Peace of mind through trust, now there’s a thought worth looking into next week.