Good morning.
In this pressurized and stressful world many folk have developed coping mechanisms for different situations. Feeling sad? There’s an app for that. Feeling bored? There’s a show for that. Feeling lonely? There’s a dessert for that.
We turn to many things to help us feel better and solve our stress. They give us a big blast of dopamine in our brains, which helps us feel happy, if only for a moment. Psychologists call these dopamine-producing things “pleasures.”
Research has found that if we continually solve our stress with pleasures, we won’t know how to deal with our stress.
2 accounts in the Bible are examples of this.
• The prodigal son in Luke 15. The son pursued all the pleasure he could, until he was left with nothing in an extreme famine.
• Or consider Esau who, for the pleasure of food, sold his birthright to Jacob (Gen. 25:32).
God wants us to be happy, but not at the expense of knowing Him and all He has for us. God wants us to grow through difficult things and experience the happiness of lasting joy in Him.
Let us take heart from what the psalmist says. "I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord ; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." (Psalms 27:13-14)
Take time today to wait on the Lord. He has a plan for us to deal with the pressures of life and the related stress. He loves us.
Blessings.
Mike and Daphne