Meditation – Hope for Complete Healing

How to Overcome Stress

Have you or are you experiencing stress? Stress occurs when you feel overwhelmed by a situation that is often out of your control. I would venture to say that all of us have experienced stress. Your spiritual health is evaluated by how you handle stress. Would you agree? For example, when you feel stressed, do you pray or swear? Do you worry or trust God? Do you become anxious or thankful?

Stress affects:

Your mental health when your job or family dynamics are challenging,
Your emotional health is affected when living or working with a problematic person or people,
Your spiritual health is affected when you have guilt from sin or legalism,
Your physical health is affected when you do hard physical labor or are overworked.

Did you notice how your muscles tense up when you feel stressed? Muscle tension is your body’s stress response, triggered by the parasympathetic nervous system. Head, neck, and shoulder muscle tension are common factors in tension and migraine headaches. Stress causes musculoskeletal pain in the lower back and upper extremities. When I am physically or mentally stressed, my fibromyalgia will flare up, which is very painful.

You may not have control of the situation causing the stress, but you can often control how the stress affects you. For example, my whole body tensed up when I learned that my daughter-in-law had to be induced early because of high blood pressure. I remained tense from worry until the baby was born.

The solution is to find a restful place or do a restful activity and intentionally unplug mentally and physically. It’s no surprise that rest is the solution to stress, so how do you rest when your life is full of stress?

Five healthy ways to overcome stress.

1. Learn to relax. Get comfy, tighten your muscles and face, then completely relax your muscles. Feel the tension drain out of your body. Remain relaxed. It helps to do the 4×4 breathing, where you breathe in four seconds, hold for four seconds, breathe out for four seconds, and hold again for four seconds. As you focus on your breathing, release more tension. This is also a great way to fall asleep fast. Relaxation shuts off the parasympathetic nervous system and reduces the cortisol level in your body. If you think about a stressful situation and become tense, practice this relaxation technique again.

2. Meditate. Meditation involves prayer and focusing on encouraging scriptures that reassure and comfort you. Ephesians 2:4-6 states, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Colossians 3:1-2 states, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ²Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” If our spirits are seated in heaven, and we are spiritually healthy, then our minds will be focused on the things of God in the Bible. When our minds focus on God’s truths, we will have peace and rest (Is. 26:3).

For example, I was harassed by a new supervisor who wanted me to quit. When I reported her to HR, she became vicious. I was very stressed and anxious. I meditated on Isaiah 41:10, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” I put this verse on my computer screen to remind myself to focus on God and rest in this promise. I also forgave her, put off the negative, stressful thoughts, and put into my mind God’s promises. There are many promises you can meditate on to help you destress and change your mental focus. See my page called POSTS about God’s Promises for examples.

3. Take a full day off. Even God rested on the seventh day. Genesis 2:2-3 states, “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. ³So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” God is our example. We need to take a day to rest for our mental and physical health.

4. Distraction. Listen to praise music, read your Bible, do a puzzle, watch an inspiring movie, walk through a garden, or work in a garden. You get the idea.

5. Exercise. Walking and meditating on God’s character and the Scriptures reduce stress. Jumping on a mini-trampoline is also helpful in getting rid of tension.

Please leave a comment explaining how you relieve stress. Turning to food, sugar, alcohol, or drugs is not healthy and not recommended. May God bless you richly.

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All verses are from the English Standard Version. If you find my posts and website helpful, please share this link with your friends and family: hopeforcompletehealing.com. The information is copyright protected. Please do not reproduce any part of the posts or my book without proper citation to Joyce Hanscom and this website.

My latest book, Unlocking God’s Promises, explains 18 categories of relevant promises to each of our lives. It also includes the promises in Psalm 91.

If you find this website helpful, you would like to read Breaking Mental Strongholds, which expands on my website book and includes many of my posts.

Additionally, consider my book Fighting Unseen Battles, which describes the many unhealthy beliefs that control our lives and what the truths are. To learn more about this book, read the post How to Fight Unseen Battles.

Contact me at hopeforcompletehealing@gmail.com, and ask for a PDF of Eight Life-changing Prayers from the Bible. The prayers are for the Spirit of wisdom, renewal, spiritual strength, knowledge of His will, virtues of God, non-believers, 23rd Psalm, and victory. I will also send you the Lord’s Prayer Model to pray effectively. Please leave your name, so I know you are a real person making the request.

Week 41: Worship God with your being.

I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. ³⁴May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD. –Psalm 104:33-34 and 146:2

Have you determined to sing praise to God as long as you live and have your being? Your being is your existence. The distractions of the world often keep me from worshiping God. Health issues, family problems, work problems, or financial problems often control our thoughts, which then prevents us from singing praises to God. Even when King David was being chased in the wilderness by King Saul, he still praised God.

King David wrote the following in Psalm 63:1-4, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. ²So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. ³Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.” Do you have the same passion and zeal? Why or why not?

Verse 34 states, “May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD.” Do you desire to please God? God knows what is in your heart and what you are thinking. Does God find a rejoicing or complaining heart? Do you rejoice in the Lord despite life’s challenges? Philippians 4:4-6 states, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. ⁵Let your reasonableness [gentleness] be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Are your medications pleasing to Him? Meditation can be:

Pondering, which is deep thought;
Contemplation, which is reviewing; or
Reflection, which is making an application.

When you pray, you are meditating using all three aspects. Sometimes, King David’s meditations to God were very heavy because of the trials he faced, yet in the end, David rejoiced and trusted God to work out his problems.

When you meditate on the following worship focuses, it will please the Lord. Determine in your heart that you will praise God as long as you live and have your being. May He bless you richly this week.

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WEEK 41–October 8-October 14

Day 281-Oct. 8—Worship God for calling you to a holy calling according to His purpose.

Who [Jesus] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. –2Timothy 1:9

Day 282-Oct. 9—Worship God for abolishing death and giving you immortality.

[Grace,] which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. –2Timothy 1:10

Day 28-Oct. 10—Worship God for being faithful even if you are faithless.

The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself. –2Timothy 2:11-13

Day 284-Oct. 11—Worship God for knowing you.

But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” –2Timothy 2:19

Day 285-Oct. 12—Worship God for making you a vessel of honor and ready for every good work.

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. –2Timothy 2:21

Day 286-Oct. 13—Worship God that He can use you as a servant to help others escape from the devil’s snare.

And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. –2Timothy 2:24-26

Day 287-Oct. 14—Worship God for standing with you and rescuing you from troubles.

But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. –2Timothy 4:17

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Verses are from the English Standard Bible. To review the previous weeks, visit the 365 Days of Worship Page. This post is copyright protected.

365 Days of Worship-Week 1 – Draw close

I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. –Psalm 146:2

Please join me this year to draw near to God through worship. When we draw close to God, He will draw close to us (James 4:8). Remember, God is Holy and sin separates us from Him (Is. 59:2). Seek God to search your heart and mind for any sinful thought, word, or deed, then confess it and repent (resolve to love well) (Jer. 17:9-10; Ps. 139:23-24; Matt. 3:8). Ask God to show you unhealthy beliefs you may have about Him concerning the verse(s). You may be offended at God for unanswered prayers, in that case, humble yourself under His sovereign hand and seek His healing of that painful memory.

Meditate on the verse throughout the day, and give God praise and adoration for each day’s worship focus. Remember, God is a Spirit and we are to worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:24).

WEEK 1 – January 1-7

Day 1—Worship God’s greatness.

Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. ³Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. –Psalms 145:2-3

Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. –Psalm 147:5

Blessing God according to the Strong’s Hebrew and Greek dictionary essentially means to adore, which is to pay divine honor to or worship.

Day 2—Worship God’s splendor and majesty.

On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. ⁶They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness. –Psalms 145: 5-6

He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills. ⁹He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry. –Psalm 147:8-9

Day 3—Worship God because He is good, righteous, merciful, and loving.

They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. ⁸The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. ⁹The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. –Psalm 145:7-9 and Psalm 103:8

Day 4—Worship God for His Faithfulness and Kindness

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. [The LORD is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.] ¹⁴The LORD upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. –Psalm 145:13-14

Day 5—Worship God for His Righteousness and Nearness

The LORD is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. ¹⁸The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. –Psalm 145:17-18

Day 6—Worship God’s Holy Name

Of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! ²Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. –Psalm 103:1-2

(Remember, blessing God according to the Strong’s Hebrew and Greek dictionary essentially means to adore, which is to pay divine honor to or worship.)

Day 7—Worship God for His Forgiveness and Healing

Who forgives all your iniquity [sins], who heals all your diseases. –Psalm 103:3

All Scripture is from the English Standard Bible. This post is copyright protected.

Spiritual Warfare 6: HOW FAITH OFFERS FULL PROTECTION

Have you ever been in a snowball fight as a kid or threw little rocks and sticks at each other? It helped to have a trashcan lid to shield and deflect the snowballs or sticks. Maybe you looked for something to hide behind for some relief for a short while until someone found you. In this post, you will learn why you need the shield of faith and when and how to use it.

The problem with spiritual warfare is that we don’t see what is coming in our direction or when it will come. It is safe to assume we will continually fight a spiritual war for our souls. Consequently, we need to stand firm in our faith. Without faith, we are vulnerable to every empty philosophy, temptation, and deception hurled at us. A warrior’s shield is the first layer of protection.

In my last post, I explained that we should expect spiritual war because “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1John 5:19b). The Bible says we need the shield of faith to protect us from the fiery arrows the unseen enemy shoots at us. Ephesians 6:16 states, “In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.” Because you can’t physically see the invisible flaming darts, you need to keep the shield of faith up. Faith protects you from the following:

darts of doubts designed to destroy your convictions and knowledge of the truth;
- arrows of temptation designed to weaken your resolve to die to sin and to be holy as God is holy;
- missiles of accusation designed to make you feel insecure, rejected, and worthless;
- flaming arrows of condemnation for things you have done in the past that would keep you in bondage to shame and guilt. Guilt keeps you in despair and makes you ineffective; and
- thoughts of failure and rejection.

What is faith?

When I think about faith, I think of a warm, secure, peaceful place for my mind to dwell. In that safe place, I have no worries, fears, anger, and so on. I have peace when I trust God has a purpose and is in control. I trust that He will work everything out for my good because I love Him (Romans 8:28). The Bible says in Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” I could not see how God would work out all the problems I was facing when I became a single mother. But I decided to put my hope in Him and stay tight with Him through prayer and praise. The other choice was to become depressed and angry about how unfair life was. When I put my trust in God and claimed His promises during my divorce, I saw God do many miracles, which strengthened my faith. You can read my story WHAT IS INNER LIFE TRANSFORMATION? My Story.

Hebrews 11:6 explains, “And without faith it is impossible to please him [God], for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Though you do not physically see spirits, you can observe the evidence. For example, you can see the destructive force of evil in a person’s life who has yielded to the influence of evil spirits. Peace and life are evidence that a person has yielded their mind and heart to God (Rom. 8:6).

Faith became a shield for me as long as my mind was on the things above where my savior, Jesus Christ, is. Colossians 3:1-2 states, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” When I think about the things on the earth, I become anxious, especially when I watched the news. I feel peaceful and secure when I think of God’s goodness and sovereignty over the affairs of our country and my life.

When I am anxious, I often will recite Psalm 91, then I immediately relax and feel peace, especially at night when my mind can’t stop thinking about life’s worries. You can read the series of posts I wrote on Psalm 91 in Psalm 91 Posts. 2Samuel 22:31, Psalms 18:30, and Proverbs 30:5 states, “This God—his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.” We take refuge in God through praying, praising, and pondering Scripture.

Faith believes that God will do what He promised He to do. Luke 1:37 states, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” Faith is the childlike trust that what God has promised, He will do. You put your spiritual shield of faith into action by claiming God’s faithfulness to keep His promises. See my post about the 15 promises we can trust God to keep. However, the shield of faith is useless if you do not meditate on or memorize God’s Word. As you memorize Scripture and claim God’s promises, you are strengthening your shield of faith so the fiery arrows from the devil cannot penetrate your mind.

Why do we need the shield of faith?

1. The shield of faith protects your mind from deception. Often, people unwittingly put their faith in lies from the devil, such as, “I will never succeed” or “I am not worthy to be loved,” which produces sorrow and many times destructive thoughts. Your faith in Jesus and applying the living water of truth extinguishes the devil’s darts of lies and accusations. The allegations and enticements seem so real that many people believe them and try to build their lives upon them. Satan’s lies are empty and destructive.

2. The shield of faith will strengthen the faith of others who are struggling. People grieving a loss are the most susceptible to spiritual attack? It could be a loss of health, a job, a loved one, and so on. When you are in a community of believers, they can cover you with their shield of faith through prayer and encourage you to keep your hope in God’s promises. Also, Hebrews 10:24-25 states, “And let us watch out for one another to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.” The faith of other believers encourages our faith when we are in a battle because their faith helps us stand firm in our faith. For example, when soldiers stand close together and lock their shields together, it forms a barrier against an attack. Do not forsake going to church. Satan will throw all kinds of offenses at you, so you quit going to church, which will weaken your faith to fight the spiritual battle he wages to take your soul.

In Luke 22:31-32, Jesus says, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Peter denied knowing Jesus three times because he was alone and his faith was weak. God’s Word says that Satan comes before God to accuse us. Read Job 1:6-12 to learn how Satan asked permission to test Job’s resolve to fear God and not sin. We will learn more about the power of prayer in the next post.

3. The shield of faith helps you believe in God’s promises. Trials and temptations will cause you to either have faith in God or doubt His promises and mentally dwell in the pit of despair. When trials test our faith, and we resist the temptation to worry or despair, we will become stronger. James 1:2–4 states, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials [temptations] of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness[endurance, patience]. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Three different words describe what testing of our faith produces: steadfastness, endurance, and patience. All are necessary to be victorious in the unseen spiritual battles. For an example read about Paul’s thorn in the flesh in 2Corinthians 12.

Steadfastness means firm, fixed, settled, or established, or constant and not changing.
Endurance is the ability to last, continue, or remain, or the ability to stand pain, distress, fatigue, etc.
Patience is to bear or endure provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.

Where do we get faith?

First, you need to get the shield of faith from Jesus. Hebrews 12:2 states, “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Second, we get faith from reading the Bible. Romans 10:17 states, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.” So, when you study God’s Word and pray daily, your shield of faith is up, and the devil’s arrows bounce off. But when you miss time reading God’s Word and praying, your protection is down, making you vulnerable to Satan’s temptations and lies. You will lose spiritual strength and health when you don’t read your Bible and pray daily.

Conclusion

Daily pray: I take up my shield of faith to block the fiery arrows of condemnation, accusation, temptations, doubts, and flattery of the enemy. I believe that God loves me, cares about me, and is the shield that protects me from evil. I will strengthen my faith by meditating on Scripture day and night. (Eph. 6:16; Rev. 12:9; 1John 3:1; 1Peter 5:7; 2Thes. 3:3; Rom. 10:17)

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My latest book is Unlocking God’s Promises, which explains 18 categories of promises that are relevant to each of our lives. It also includes the promises in Psalm 91.

If you find this website helpful, you would like to read Breaking Mental Strongholds, which expands on my website book and includes many of my posts.

Contact me at hopeforcompletehealing@gmail.com and ask for a PDF of Eight Life-Changing Prayers from the Bible. The prayers are for the Spirit of wisdom, renewal, spiritual strength, knowledge of His will, virtues of God, non-believers, the 23rd Psalm, and victory. I will also send you the Lord’s Prayer Model to pray effectively. Please leave your name, so I know you are a real person making the request.