To counter stress, many people resort to tobacco, alcohol or tranquilizers. These things, besides having harmful side effects, are costly and often lead to addictions.
God has something better for us. It is powerful, costs us nothing and has no harmful side effects. He calls it “the rest” and “the refreshing”. What is He referring to? Speaking in tongues—“For with stammering lips and another tongue…”

One of our church members was on medication for nine long years for a host of problems: severe depression, suicidal thoughts, insomnia, chronic sinusitis, gastritis and panic attacks. Every day, he had to take up to 30 tablets to keep these conditions under control.

He suffered from such bad sinusitis that he had to visit the hospital regularly to drain the mucus. He could not sleep much—at most three hours—even with sleeping pills. And because of his panic attacks, he could not go to work and seldom left his house. His wife had to look after him and their three kids. The side effects of the long-term medication also caused his physique to balloon

One day, he felt God prompting him to pray in tongues as often as he could. He obeyed. The moment he started to pray in tongues, even though it was just a few syllables, he felt a rest, a peace. This encouraged him to pray in tongues more. And the more he prayed in tongues, the more rest and peace he felt.

His sinuses began to clear up and he was healed of gastritis. Slowly, the fears and panic attacks left him too. He also started to have quality sleep without the sleeping pills! The Lord even taught him how he was to eat—two meals a day, but to eat whatever he wanted. Today, he is back to his normal weight!

Through praying in tongues regularly, God delivered this man from a host of long-term illnesses. My friend, this is the rest and the refreshing which God has promised us. So start praying in tongues regularly, and let His rest and peace saturate your entire being!

Isaiah 28:11–12 
For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, to whom He said, “This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest,” and, “This is the refreshing”...

- Joseph Prince's Daily Grace Inspirations -

The Bible has written of Jesus’s love for the lost. These have given me hope and I sought my Lord Jesus Christ for He who I trust has all authority in heaven as well as on earth (Matthew 28:18). 

For the moments when all hope is lost, Lord give me eyes to see more of who You are. May Your love still my anxious thoughts and heart. Grant me the grace to see beyond any overwhelming moment and let me believe that there is nothing to fear; that You alone are still in control. Lord God, let me proclaim that You are greater still, assure me that You are greater than all, that no lost soul will ever be out of Your reach.

Help me take heart that You will accomplish Your will in the lives of Your children, saved or prayed for. Strengthen me to not fall to my own perception that all hope is lost but let my rationale be dumbfounded by the greatness of my God.

Let the lost come home to You, Jesus. I pray in Jesus name, Amen.

Luke 19:10
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

- Irene Soon

We shall not need to fight in this battle. As long as we count our dangers and responsibilities, we shall be distracted with fear. But when we realize God is bound to take care of us as His property and His representatives, we shall feel infinite relief and security.

If I send my employee on a long journey, I am responsible for his expenses and protection; if God sends me anywhere, He is responsible. If we belong to God and put our life, our family, and our all in His hands, we may know He will take care of us.If our body belongs to God, it is His interest to keep us well, just as much as it is for the interest of the Shepherd to have His sheep well fed, well cared for and a credit to Him.

Thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph (2 Corinthians 2:14).Stand up, stand up for Jesus, Stand in His strength alone; The arm of flesh will fail, do not rely on your own strength. The battle is the Lord thus victory is your's.

2 Chronicles 20:15
... Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's

- A. Simpson

The air is made of essential elements needed to sustain life. Yet, it is not something we can see with our visible eyes.

Just like air, so are the things of the spirit and things of God's kingdom. We may not be able to see them with our physical eyes but they are essential to sustaining this life and the life after this one.

When we believe in Jesus Christ, each one of us has access to His Spirit which enables us to see and understand things of the spirit. As our spiritual eyes become open, we have the ability to declare and speak the same power that raised Christ from the dead over our lives!

It's time for us to speak Christ's life where's death, promises where there's hopelessness, peace where there's confusion and victory where there's defeat! That is how God's kingdom come into our physical world!

‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭2‬:‭12‬What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

- Jo Voon-‭‭

Meet Caleb, Caleb is a person who has the courage to defy circumstances he faced. Think of a young child who you may know who refuses to let her physical disabilities keep her from living a normal life, Caleb has that determination.

In the Bible, Caleb came back with a good report after his spy mission in Canaan. Ten of his fellow spies panicked when they saw the size of some of the Canaanites that they need to defeat in order to claim the Promised Land. “They are too powerful,” they claimed but Caleb viewed the adversity through a different perspective. Surely he has his doubt but he focused on the One who had brought Egypt down to its knees and on the God who provided manna, quails and waters when the Israelites were in the desert. Caleb surveyed the Promised Land, saw adversities but he concluded that nothing else was a match for God’s power. “Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." (Numbers 13:30) Only Caleb and Joshua gave an evaluation prompted by faith in the Almighty.

Have you reached the same conclusion regarding the obstacles in your life? Instead of allowing the problem at hand to overwhelm you, think about who is the One who is in your team. Caleb did and he entered the Promise Land. Refuse to be intimidated by your spiritual enemies no matter how enormous they seem. Remind yourself of the miraculous power that God is able to lavish on you.

Numbers 13:30
Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

- John W.

If you ever wonder whether your body could stay afloat on the sea, you may be interested to know that yes it could. The Law of Achimedes states that as long as the water your body displaces weighs more than you do, you will float. Saltier water also weighs more per unit of volume thus a swimmer will float higher in saltier water compared to fresh waters.

This knowledge however, disappeared in my own moment of panic. On a recent holiday trip, I agreed to snorkel for the first time. The excitement of seeing the beauty of the pacific island’s corals and fish supersede the fear of the deep water. The excitement however, was quickly replaced by overwhelming fear once I took the plunge out of the boat without a life jacket. All I have learned about buoyancy and the law of Achimedes disappeared as I struggled and panicked under water. It was not until I decided to stay calm and struggle less, the sinking feeling disappeared and I made it to the surface afloat.

In Psalm 139, King David acknowledges the presence of the Lord everywhere he went, “Even to the far side of the sea, Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast.” Are you sinking in your own fear? Are you allowing fear to distract you from the truth that God is in control of everything that has fallen apart? Are you struggling to ‘stay afloat’ with your own effort? The Lord is everywhere we go; He knows when we sit and rise, He hems us in behind and before and He is familiar with our ways. 

Let the truth of God’s not forsaking character be bigger than your fear. The promise of the Lord’s presence everywhere we are is a wonderful comfort to calm and help us struggle less. 

Psalm 139: 5 - 8
You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

- Irene Soon 

The enemy wants you to believe that stress is a normal part of life, which is just something you have to endure. He does this because he wants you to try and cope with stress and weariness, rather than conquer them.

If you have not discovered the cure for stress, the most common reaction is often one of panic but God has something better for your life than always feeling stressed. God did not create you to go through life stressed and exhausted, never taking time to rest and be refreshed. He has a better plan, He created you to love your life every single day; He wants you to live each day full of peace, confidence and joy in Him.

Sure, there are going to be days, weeks, months and even years that seems busier or harder but it doesn’t matter how busy or challenging things get on the outside, you can be at rest on the inside. The events of life may make you weary but it is also your attitude toward those events that is making you weary.

When you trust God, you can stop stressing and start resting; you can change your attitude and you can change your outlook. When you trust in Him, the things that used to bother you now builds you faith, the people who used to drive you crazy now drive you to pray for them and the problems that used to scare you now strengthens you.

With God’s help and us trusting in Him, stress can be a thing in the past.

Isaiah 40:31
but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Paraphrased from Joyce Meyer’s writing

Psalm 84:2
My heart and my flesh cries out for the living God

Loneliness is one of the greatest problems people face today. It is a leading cause of suicide that is now the third greatest killer of students in the United States. Although people feel various kinds of loneliness, the most common one is the loneliness of solitude. Many people experience that loneliness in any society.

All of us feel at times a loneliness for God. Someone has called it cosmic loneliness. We don’t know what it is. It makes us restless. You see, man was made for God; and without God, he is lonely. But Jesus is knocking at the door of our heart, saying, “I want to come in. Let me in.” He doesn't push His way through that door. We have to open it and invite Him in; when we do, He comes in to live forever and we are never lonely again.

- Writing of Billy Graham

Many people who are task-oriented mostly have their hands full of work and duties. The concept of slowing down or taking a break may feel like “a sin” or foreign to them.  They feel guilty with the idea to take a rest since many people are dependent on them.

But the God of the Bible tells us to be still and wait on Him. He does not tell us to be passive and to do nothing but He wants us to actively put our hope in Him everyday. It is when we wait with hope and quietly then we can hear His voice. Even when we keep rushing and making our lives busy with all the good things we do, He calls us to wait on Him. It is when we choose to believe that God is God who works in His time for the best of His beloved, we can be still and wait on Him to work on our lives: our family, our career, our future, etc.

We can persuade God but we can never push Him to do things out of His time. Sarah pushed her husband to work on their own to fulfill God’s promises regarding their promised child and it only brings separation and heart break to the family. But still God blessed Abraham and did not forget His promise to him.

Are you hoping and waiting on God’s answers for situations in your lives? Never stop trusting Him, only when we live in obedience and have a willing heart and ear then we can listen to Him speaking to our lives. He who kept His promise to Abraham will not fail us.

Psalm 37: 7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him
Psalm 62:5 I wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him (NLT)

- Jenni Wang

1 Peter 4:7
The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.

Go not, my friend, into the dangerous world without prayer. You kneel down at night to pray, drowsiness weighs down your eyelids; a hard day’s work is a kind of excuse, and you shorten your prayer, and resign yourself softly to repose. The morning breaks; and it may be you rise late, and so your early devotions are not done, or are done with irregular haste.

If Jesus, the strong Son of God, felt it necessary to rise before the breaking of the day to pour out His heart to God in prayer, how much more ought you to pray unto Him who is the Giver of every good and perfect gift, and who has promised all things necessary for our good. What Jesus gathered into His life from His prayers we can never know; but this we do know, that the prayerless life is a powerless life. 

A prayerless life may be a noisy life, and fuss around a great deal; but such a life is far removed from Him who, by day and night, prayed to God.

- Unknown author