Friend, are you drowning in stress right now? If so, I want to encourage you with three prayers for stress relief–and with Bible promises and comfort in the Lord that will touch your heart, no matter what you are going through!

First, friend, I want you to hear the words of our Lord Jesus today.

Our Lord Jesus is so sweet and kind and good to us His children, and He knows and sees all you are going through. You are not alone; He is with you right now.

Yes: If you have made Jesus your personal Lord and Savior, then He lives right inside your heart and spirit. Yes, He is in you and for you!

And friend, this God–this Jesus, born of a virgin into a human body for our sake, Who was crucified and died and was buried, but also rose again–this Jesus, very God of very God–is carefully attending to you today …

… to give you REST from your stress.

True story.

Beloved, God really cares about what stresses you out–and He wants to relieve your burdens.

Look at what He says to us all in Matthew chapter 11:

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30 NKJV).

Yes, beloved, God wants to give you rest right now. No matter what you’re going through, it is not His will for you to be stressed out, hurting, or discouraged.

Even if the storm doesn’t end instantly when you call on Him, He WILL help you instantly when you call on Him …

… because He promises to give you REST from your burdens when you come to Him.

So, friend, are you feeling stressed out today?

If so, use these three simple, one-sentence prayers to call on His name. I encourage you also to add your own words around these prayers, lifting them up to the Lord and pouring out your heart to Him, as you call on Him for help. If you will pray, God will answer.

Are you ready? Let’s begin with the first very simple (and perhaps the most obvious) prayer.

Prayer 1: “Lord, please help me right now.”

There’s nothing more effective in the world than crying out to the Lord for help. No matter what your need is …

• whether you need money,
• or comfort,
• or wisdom,
• or someone to defend you (that would be God),
• or an open door of opportunity,
• or any other thing …

God’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear dull, that it cannot hear:

“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear” (Isaiah 59:1 NKJV).

Our Heavenly Father is always listening when you cry out to Him for help!

Look with me at one of my favorite Scripture passages, Psalm 3:1-5:

“Lord, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me. Many are they who say of me, ‘There is no help for him in God.’ Selah.

But You, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory and the One who lifts up my head. I cried to the Lord with my voice, and He heard me from His holy hill. Selah. I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me” (Psalm 3:1-5 NKJV).

Friend, God is here with you right now.

He is with you in the middle of your mess, in the middle of your struggle, and in the middle of your stress. He is causing you to breathe in and out right now. He is holding you together, for in Him all things consist:

“For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:16-17 NKJV, emphasis mine).

Yes, God is literally holding the atoms, protons, neutrons, electrons, molecules, and cells of your body together right now. He is keeping your heart beating and your lungs moving in and out, even if you don’t feel like it in any given moment.

And friend, we have the great privilege of calling to Him for help when we need it.

This God, Who stoops so low as to love us and make us His children, has given us the privilege of calling unto Him whenever we need Him. And He has promised to answer us every time we call:

“‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know'” (Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV).

Therefore, my friend, don’t hesitate! Although calling on the Lord for help may seem like a simple thing, its power is not simple at all! When you speak His name …

… when you call on Him in truth …

… when you even whisper His name in the midnight hour …

… when you pour out your heart to Him in prayer, remembering that He said to be anxious for nothing, but to cast it all on Him:

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV).

Then, beloved, He will come through for you every time.

In the middle of asking Him for help with your situation, remember also to pray for help managing the stress.

He will give you grace, grace, and more grace if you will humble yourself before Him and admit your great need. I do this every day, for I feel my need for the Lord as keenly in my spirit as my body feels its need for air. However, His Word promises us grace and strength:

“But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble'” (James 4:6 NKJV).

And also in another one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible:

“And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NKJV).

It is the grace of God that enables and empowers you to bear up under difficulty, under stresses, under tests and trials and tribulations, and stay steady and stable in Him. It is His grace that helps you maintain your composure and kindness, and not lose your temper or your peace with yourself, with God, and with everybody around you.

Therefore, while you’re calling on God for help with your actual situation, remember to ask Him for help in handling the stress of it too. And most of all, cast your burdens on the Lord, and He will sustain you:

“Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22 NKJV).

That brings us to prayer #2:

Prayer 2: “Please help me to prioritize my wellness even in the midst of this.”

A lot of stress relief comes, not only from resolution of the situation, but in self-management. While you wait on the Lord to resolve the situation with you and for you, it’s important to take care of yourself so you can stay healthy. Your wellness will help you manage the stress a lot more easily.

For example, when I’m stressed:

• I feel a thousand times better if I take my magnesium glycinate as my doctor prescribed to me years ago. (Magnesium is one of the most important elements in the body, and the glycinate variety makes you feel so calm and relaxed: like, “God’s in His Heaven, all’s right with the world.” My doctor prescribed it to me years ago, but sometimes I forget to take it.)
• I feel a lot better if I go for even a 10-minute walk. The walking puts things in perspective, helping me realize that I can put space between “situations” and “me,” and that “I” do not have to let “things” derail me. I can maintain peace in the Lord, no matter what is happening around me. Walking is an act of self-care that defies the pressure and temptations of the world. And when I walk, my mind, body, soul, and spirit are forced to remember that “It is well with my soul.”
• Even doing simple things like tidying up my home or doing odd bits of laundry that I’ve been putting off doing, make me feel more peaceful, more “with it,” more together, capable, and calm–rather than feeling overwhelmed and buffeted about by the winds and waves of storms and stress.

Friend, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

As the Holy Spirit Himself wrote through the apostle Paul:

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NKJV).

When you are really stressed out, one of the very best things you can do is make a little (or a lot) extra effort to take care of yourself in a holy way.

The self-care may not change your storm, but it will definitely impact the way you pass through the storm. It will not immediately take you out of the valley, but it just might help you see a lot more light while you’re in the valley.

And it will definitely help you keep your eyes on Jesus, Who is the Author and the Finisher of your faith–and Who alone can get you out of the storm, through the valley, and bring you out on the other side. As it says in Hebrews 12:1-2:

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 

looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2 NKJV).

And that, my friend, makes it worth it even if self-care had no other benefits. (Although, of course, self-care does have many other benefits.)

Therefore, pray this short prayer right now: “Lord, please help me to prioritize my wellness even in the midst of this.” …

… and act on it!

Then, on to prayer 3.

Prayer 3: “Please help me to do what You want me to do, and to rest in You while You do everything else.”

There is almost always something God wants us to do in any given situation, even if it’s not much. Therefore, when you’re walking through a stressful situation, it’s important to stop and listen to the Lord to hear what He is telling you to do.

For example, He could be saying:

• “Make a phone call and ask for prayer.”
• “Make the difficult decision and leave this environment.”
• “Pick up ten things around the house to make your environment more peaceful.”
• “Go for a walk and let Me work it out.”
• “Apply for three jobs today, and ten this week.”
• “Go ahead and have the difficult conversation. It’s okay to confront this person.”

The range of things the Lord could tell you to do is endless, and is only up to Him. Only He knows what will help in any given situation. But He will always tell you what to do if you ask Him, for His Word says:

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.

Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you.

Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him” (Psalm 32:8-10 NKJV).

And when we step out in faith to take action, He affirms that action, for our proactive steps please Him:

“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12 NKJV).

However, friend, after you’ve done what you can, you still have to wait on the Lord for the rest.

If you’re stressed out, do what you can. Do whatever the Lord is leading you to do, even if it’s something nobody really wants to do, like cleaning out the garage or picking up the house or making a goal to apply for 100 jobs over the next ten weeks. But after you’ve done what He is leading you to do, you have to simply wait on Him to do the rest …

… and we have to rest in Him the whole time, while we’re taking steps and while we’re not.