Five Ways To Relax
Peace I
leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto
you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. – John 14: 27
And let the peace
of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be
ye thankful. – Colossians 3: 15
You will find many
Scriptures throughout God’s Word that mention peace, but how many of us know
how to relax according to God’s Word? Everyone knows that it is important to
relax for physical and mental health. Yet, many of us are full of stress due to
worry and fear. I believe that this teaching will alleviate much of that stress
and, if applied, will teach you how to relax.
There are basically
five (5) ways to relax and we will cover each way one at a time. Of course, the
first way is one that you should have guessed by now.
1) Read the Bible – Reading God’s Word first thing
in the morning will set your day. You will be listening to God as Matthew 6: 33
states and God will bless you for keeping Him first.
But seek ye
first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be
added unto you. -- Matthew 6: 33
Thou wilt
keep him in perfect peace, whose
mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. -- Isaiah
26: 3
Perfect peace – it
sounds hard to believe, but it is available because God says it is. But God is
no respecter of persons, but of conditions. What is the condition of having
perfect peace? WE MUST STAY OUR MIND ON GOD. Any believer who stays his or her
mind on God obviously trusts in God.
But for now, if you are
just beginning to learn the Bible, just sit down and read it. It is so full of
positive promises, it simply will give you hope and will bless you, and in
turn, you will relax. Take the advice that was given to me. If you can’t
understand something, just keep reading. God will only teach you what you can
handle at that time. I would say that of the five ways that we will cover,
regarding how to relax, this is the most important. Some days I may read a
chapter – others a book – some days I may read as much as 16 chapters or more.
The minimum you should read is a chapter a day. Remember, God moves when you
move. If you’re too busy to study God’s Word, you’re too busy.
The second way to relax
regards a basic physiological function of every human being, but yet we abuse
this need. Most people today are tricked by this fast-paced world and deprive
themselves of this basic need.
2) Sleep – Many people today get maybe 6 or
7 hours of sleep per day and in most cases this is really not enough. Many also
have a difficult time sleeping.
I will both
lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in
safety. – Psalms 4: 8
This believer lays down
in PEACE, and sleeps. What is the condition for sleep? You must be at peace.
Why is this believer at peace? Because he believes God’s Word and he knows he
can dwell in safety. Do we lay down at night with our mind stayed on God and
the almost 1000 promises in His Word? If we do, then we feel safe and can relax
and fall asleep. The way God states something is truly beyond any man’s
ability. Again, the believer gives God the glory because he dwells in safety
allowing him to lay down in peace, and sleep. If you have problems in this
area, here is a great principle that will help you be better able to relax and
get a good night’s sleep.
Be ye angry,
and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: – Ephesians 4: 26
It is extremely
important that, if you are angry, don’t try to go to sleep. You know how our
minds can just think thought after thought in rapid succession. If you have a
problem of any type, God wants you to take of care of it BEFORE you end your
day. That is what that phrase means ‘let not the sun go down upon your wrath’.
If you can solve or alleviate a problem before you retire for the day, do it.
Don’t wait until the next day. This guidance from God is very important and
very effective. Don’t think about it, just do it and you will find that you
will lay down in peace, and sleep.
For God hath
not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound
mind. -- II Timothy 1: 7
In the teaching The Believer’s Only Enemy, I talk about this
subject of ‘fear’ in detail. You should study this teaching as it will help you
to overcome fear. If you are full of fear, you will have a difficult time
trying to relax in almost any of the five areas we will cover. From Proverbs,
let’s study an example of a believer who trusts in God and has no fear, and the
result.
When thou
liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep
shall be sweet. – Proverbs 3: 24
Isn’t that beautiful
and just so simple? When you study and apply God’s Word, fear is simply driven
out of your life – AND your sleep shall be sweet. Do not underestimate the
importance of enough sleep. It will help you to relax and stay relaxed
throughout your day. The adversary tries hard to trick people in this area.
People eventually burn out, get depressed and even take nervous breakdowns
along with becoming just downright unhappy which can eventually lead to
suicidal thoughts. How do I know this?
At one time, I
experimented with less sleep. I would get about 4 hours of sleep a night. At
first, everything seemed fine, but then slowly but surely, I became withdrawn
and started experiencing problems in my marriage. I was doing things that
bordered on the irrational. I would go shopping at 4:30 AM. I would try to get
as much done in a day as is possible with very little time to relax. I became
friendly with the world as the adversary was setting me up for major
destruction. I went out and got a job that I should not have gotten. I made it
through two days of orientation and quit. All of a sudden, I started to feel depressed
and had thought that life was not worth living. You see, the effects of a lack
of sleep will eventually get worse and worse. Since your judgement is impaired,
YOU can’t see what is happening. This is the most dangerous part of all.
It took my spouse to stand up to me and tell it to me straight. I was shocked
to hear it but I decided to get 7 to 8 hours sleep after that. My thoughts
almost immediately began to clear up and I could see that I was headed for
quite a fall if I continued depriving myself of necessary sleep. Physically, I
began to feel twice better and I realized that my sleep-deprived lifestyle was
a well-arranged counterfeit orchestrated by the god of this world to steal,
kill, and destroy me. I believe that some of you will learn from this and I
realize that some people can function well on different amounts of sleep. But
if you’re falling asleep on your job and dragging yourself out of bed, you need
more sleep. I can’t make it complicated.
Now there may be
something I said that might confuse some people so I want to go back and tell
you what the Word says. I said "I became friendly with the world".
You may think that’s not such a bad thing, but who controls this world at the
present time?
Ye
adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is
enmity [at
conflict] with God? whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God. – James 4: 4
Whenever the world
starts getting real friendly and nice to me, I take a step back. I fell for
this trick too many times. So often, it is the devil trying to set me up in
some way by getting me to trust the world – WHICH HE CONTROLS. You can manifest
the love of God to people without getting hurt. Unless it’s a believer who
studies God’s Word faithfully, don’t get too close! Remember, the renewed mind
is a BALANCED walk. We need to keep God and His Word first, but we also need to
live and function in this present evil world. There is a balance that God will
teach you if you try. Remember He loves you more than you can even comprehend.
He wants you to take action on His Word – that’s all He asks. Do what God tells
you to do, keep Him first and everything else will fall into it’s proper place.
3) Nature – Most people can identify with
this way of relaxing and is probably a favorite. There is something about
natural settings that is hard to explain. That’s because we can’t explain God.
Do you know from where I just returned? I was walking my dog six miles up in
the country. My dog and I have walked at least 20,000 miles so far. This walk
relaxes me, keeps my cholesterol level at about 124, my blood pressure at about
106 over 70, helps me sleep, keeps my weight down, etc. Now let’s take a look
at our brother and where he went to relax.
As you know, many times
the multitudes followed Jesus Christ and he was human and needed to find
somewhere to get some peace. Where did he go? It’s not surprising that Jesus
Christ chose natural settings to relax. Let’s take a look at the Word where a
great multitude followed him because of all the miracles which he did.
And Jesus
went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. – John 6: 3
Christ chose a mountain
to relax and have fellowship with his disciples - those who were the strongest
in the Word. There are many records like this.
And Jesus
departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; and went up into a
mountain, and sat down there. – Matthew 15: 29
He sat down there and
relaxed. This Scripture mentions the sea and the mountains. I am going to tell you
why natural settings and nature is so peaceful. Because it is not a place that
the adversary frequents that often. Darkness cannot stand light. It agitates me
when people don’t give God the glory for nature.
Animals can bring a
person great peace. It is a scientific and medical fact that bringing dogs onto
a critical care hospital unit cheers up patients and lowers their stress
levels. Why? Because God made animals in a most magnificent manner – their
beauty and grace is beyond our description. I take care of three different
types of creatures and they get the best of care I can possibly give them. It
is a privilege of life to have animals among us. And yet there are people
possessed by the devil who abuse animals. My next door neighbor is one of them.
I caught him punching his dog in the face and kicking him in the face – a
beautiful golden retriever – and for no reason at all. I yelled out my window
that I was going to come over to him and straighten him out. He challenged me.
I grabbed a torque wrench and looked him straight in the eyes and told him he
was insane. After he squirmed for a while, he jumped on his lawn mower and ran
like the coward that he is. I reported him to the police three times and to the
Humane Police. They tried to take the dog from him, but they wanted proof from
me on video tape. The legal system is a joke. This insane person knows I am
watching him and waiting. I put it in God’s hands. Cowards like that make me
want to vomit. Remember, self-defense is a Biblical concept. For me to do
nothing would have made me a worse coward than him. At times, you have to stand
up face to face with Satan and I look forward to it. If you ever see someone
abuse a helpless animal, you report it or the god of this world will torment
you. Don’t be afraid. God will protect you.
How many people do you
know that go to the beach? White water rafting? Hiking? Swimming? There are
endless ways to enjoy nature. I used to be such an idiot that I laughed at
people who were involved in bird watching. Now I find myself fascinated by the
beauty and diversity of this part of nature. The more you renew your mind to
God’s Word, the more you will enjoy nature. The renewed mind is your key to
power.
I Beseech
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not
conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that
good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. -- Romans 12: 1, 2
I think the relaxing
qualities of nature are understood by almost everyone. If you’re wound up
tight, try it. God will not let you down – guaranteed.
***
Important: The next two (2) ways to relax can be abused. Remember, the enemy
counterfeits everything the true God does. He is a parasite. Be spiritually
sharp when learning to relax by the following two methods.
4) Music – There is a time and a place for
listening to music and a type of music to listen to. If I am doing work that
involves much concentration, I sometimes find that it is not best to be
listening to music at the same time. I like a variety of music, but I will be
careful to point out to you that some types of music are counterfeit and will
do more harm that good, so let’s go to God’s Word and get the negative example
out of the way.
Certain types of music
are nothing but organized confusion, complicated and upsetting to the nervous
system - composed by the god of this world.
That at what time ye hear the sound of the
cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye
fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set
up: And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into
the midst of a burning fiery furnace. -- Daniel 3: 5, 6
We have every
indication here that the music was of the adversary – the god of this present world.
People were forced to worship an idol or face death. Today, devilish
music is much more subtle. The adversary always hides so that he can trick
people by having them listening to so-called music that agitates the central
nervous system and has many negative effects and influences. Let me take you to
one of the worst examples of this that I can think of. Some of you are not going
to like this.
You should be aware
that the enemy has a seed also and some people who have great influence sell
out to the devil, especially in the entertainment field. When the Beatles first
came upon the scene, they were as innocent as could be. They captured the
hearts of many millions of people, mostly the younger kids. The adversary found
a vehicle to sway millions to his type of music that is destructive in nature.
Slowly but surely, his influence started to dominate this group’s music. By the
time the infamous White Album was released, Satan’s influence became obvious.
Charles Manson, someone
born of the seed of the serpent, listened to Helter Skelter over and over and
over again. Shortly afterwards, he brutally murdered innocent people for no reason
at all. He had controlled the minds of his followers as they gave way to
possession by Satan. To make an understatement, certain types of music are very
dangerous. AND IF YOU DON’T KNOW THE WORD OF GOD, YOU’LL NEVER SEE IT! Now
let’s move to the positive side of music – inspired by the true God and Father
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
There are two types of
music – secular and spiritual. Secular music is what is basically played on the
radio – oldies – rock – hard rock – country rock – country western – blues –
jazz and the list goes on. Spiritual music is played by Bible teaching groups,
churches, gospel singers and individual artists. Here is where you need to be
sharp.
SECULAR MUSIC – I’m
listening to Steppenwolf right now. It is helping me avoid a distraction by my
animal abusive neighbor. I have disciplined my mind to be able to do most types
of work with music. This was not necessarily by choice, but by necessity. My
enemy gets a little upset when I share God’s rightly divided Word. Too bad.
Secular music can only be listened to for so long. Believe it or not, hard rock
can actually weaken your muscles. It’s a fact. So I listen to it until I begin
to feel negative effects. A few aspirin may be good for a headache, but a
bottle will kill you. I own two jukeboxes and used to teach guitar, so I think
I know something about music. Enjoy your music, but don’t take it too far – to
an extreme. It can become an idol.
Little
children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. – I John 5: 21
Literal translation
according to usage: Do not seek any help, guidance or
instruction from any other source other than our heavenly Father. -- I John 5:
21
DO NOT put anything
first before God. This is idolatry. Music can become an idol along with almost
anything else. God does have a time and place for everything.
SPIRITUAL MUSIC – the
spiritual, gospel music I basically listened to was from the Ministry where I
once studied and I’m just going to tell you that it was right on. I knew a
woman of God who told me that when she was cleaning her home, the Ministry
music seemed to help her energy level while secular music seemed to make her
tired. It was inspiring and uplifting – positive in all respects putting the
Word of God to many of the lyrics. The musical instruments were played simply,
but seemingly in perfect harmony and tune. I found the music amazing. Heart and
Steppenwolf makes me want to cruise down the highway at 100 MPH in my Corvette
looking for action. Do you see the difference? One type of music gets you going
while the other helps to make you peaceful. There are benefits to both, just
keep it in perspective. Regarding secular music, I found an artist once that
really blessed me and I listened to her music constantly. When I drove, when I
worked and taught – every day. I somewhat became obsessed with her music and
even her. I even went to one of her concerts (I never go to concerts). I was on
the borderline of becoming delusional pertaining to the whole situation. As
time went on, things began to go wrong and I was able to see the enemy’s trick.
I took a good thing to an extreme.
The overall greatest
benefit I realize from music, at times, is that it helps me to focus AND NOT BE
DISTRACTED. One example: I often wash my cars and clean them completely with
headphones on. It drives the adversary nuts. Remember, devilish people DO NOT
want you to be happy.
Be careful [anxious or distracted] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication [be
specific] with thanksgiving let your requests be
made known unto God. – Philippians 4: 6
The enemy will try to
distract you and music is one of the ways to shut off his air. Keep everything
in balance and have fun. To conclude this section, I want God’s Word to speak
with a record in I Samuel that will have a lasting impact on your life. This is
an example of what God’s music can do for your life and the lives of others.
This is a tremendous
record of Saul, Samuel and David. Please read I Samuel Chapter 16, verses 1
through 13 and we will begin in verse 14.
But the Spirit
of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord [the god
of this world] troubled him. – I Samuel
16: 14
TAKE NOTE of the way the translators
translated the word ‘Lord’. God does not possess devil spirits and He does not
send them to people. Because He is even just to the devil, He allows the devil to do such things. God is all light
and in Him is no darkness at all, so how can He send devil spirits to trouble
someone? The above is a figure of speech and properly translated, THE WORD LORD
SHOULD BE SATAN. Satan is the source of the evil spirit world, not God.
And Saul’s
servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God [the god of this world] troubleth thee. Let our lord now command thy servants, which
are before thee, to seek out a man,
who is a cunning player on an
harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God [the
god of this world] is upon thee, that he shall play
with his hand, and thou shalt be well. And Saul said unto his servants, Provide
me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me. – I Samuel 16: 15 – 17
This record is the most
distinct story I know of in the Bible of the power that lies in music that
spiritually is in alignment and harmony with God’s Word. Saul was being
possessed by a devil spirit and it was tormenting him. Possession is a
temporary thing, but it can return at any time. Homosexuals may be possessed
while in a deviant sexual act, but afterwards, the spirit, now satisfied, may
leave the person’s body until that person, by their own free will, gives place
to this behavior again. Apparently, at this time it was well known of the power
of Godly music since they went through much trouble to find this musician.
Read verses 18 to 22
and you will see that the musician was David. Now for the conclusion of this
section in verses 23 and 24.
And it came
to pass, when the evil spirit
from God [the god
of this world] was upon Saul, that David took an
harp, and played with his hand: Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil
spirit departed from him. – I Samuel 16: 23, 24
5) Humor – It
would be best if you read the teaching A Spirit
Of Hilarity so that you are familiar with the enemy’s counterfeit.
This topic is quite familiar
with everyone and it very beneficial in helping anyone to relax. Everyone likes
a good laugh once in a while. It helps us not to worry or have anxiety by
taking many things in life too seriously. In fact, it is more important than it
seems.
A merry
heart doeth good like a
medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. – Proverbs 17: 22
Isn’t that quite
amazing that God would compare being cheerful to medicine? Now the type of
humor I am referring to is genuine and tasteful. It is not some of the constant,
perpetual nonsense you may see on television advertisements. You may have heard
the often used cliché that ‘laughter is the best medicine’. Now you know where
that saying originated. It’s from God’s Word and it is truth.
I happen to have a
family doctor that is one of the most cheerful people I have ever met. Before
he gets to your waiting room, you can hear him laughing nearby with another
patient. I actually look forward to doctor’s appointments! This doctor always
makes me feel good about myself and cheers me up. I thank God that I have found
a doctor like this and I pray for his well-being.
Look at the second part
of the above verse. It’s about the same as saying that a negative attitude will
make you sick – and it will. Positive believing yields positive results and
negative believing yields negative results.
A merry
heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is
broken. – Proverbs 15: 13
Do you know who was the
first carpenter in the Bible? It was Eve. She made Adam’s banana stand!
Humor is a great thing
when used appropriately and God Almighty has a great sense of humor. Listen to
this.
It
is better to dwell in the
corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house. – Proverbs
21: 9
Now ladies, bear with
me, I just find the way God words that verse as funny or humorous, even though
it is a great truth.
As a jewel of gold in a
swine’s snout, so is a fair
woman which is without discretion. – Proverbs 11: 22
God has a way with
words. Why does that verse make me laugh? Because it is so true. Have you ever
met a beautiful woman that is on a massive head trip? It just seems to negate
her beauty. But meet a beautiful woman that is humble also and it only
magnifies her fairness. The same holds true for a handsome man.
I have done my best to
present to you the tools for learning how to genuinely relax. You can sit on
the toolbox or you can make use of these tools. I have enjoyed preparing this
teaching more than some others even though it is equally important. The subject
is, in itself, relaxing. Teach yourself how to relax – it is necessary and it
is important. It will help your mental health and your physical health so that
you can be your very best for God.
And the
world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth [practices] the will of God abideth for ever. – I John 2: 17
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