The topic of stress and how we as humans handle stress is a very common discussion; a Google search for stress in the news yields 16,300,000 results. (Google n.d.) Conversely, in the first century the Apostle Peter tells his early Christian readers to cast all their anxiety onto Jesus. The Greek word he uses for anxiety is the noun merimna. (Earle, 443) It is the same word Jesus uses in His Parable of the Sower for the seed scattered among the thorns, “…the worries of the world… enter in and choke the word…” (Mk. 4:19 NASB). Peter’s statement seems simple enough, direct everything that causes you to worry over to Jesus, almost as if forwarding an email. Except, I imagine anyone you would find …show more content…
Therefore, the desire to feel a sense of God’s unconditional and supreme love is like a deer seeking water. (Ps. 42:1) So to overcome this challenge, I have focused on the presence of God. God first chose to use a marriage analogy to His people in the Old Testament, and the theme continues into the New Covenant. (Is. 54:5, Jer. 31:32, Matt. 22:2, Rev. 19:7) Therefore, it is appropriate to understand the love of a husband and wife in ways similar to God’s love for us. In the book Gift from the Sea, “When you love someone you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment… We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity.” (Lindbergh) Couples married for more than a day know that you do not always feel the warm, bubbly, emotion driven love feelings for your spouse. Therefore, since I know what it is to love my wife in a way that transcends feelings, so too is God’s love, and even