Rick Warren - POWERFUL Resilience Prayer to Support You Through Hard Times

And maybe you've never thought about it, but the Bible

says that we are to look to Jesus as our

model for enduring tough times. We are to follow his

example of resilience and we are to follow his example

of stress management. And the Bible says it this way.

Hebrews chapter 12 says this, verses one to three out

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

of the New Living Translation. Since we are surrounded by

such a crowd of witnesses to this life of faith,

let us strip off every weight that slows us down,

especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And

let us run with endurance, run with endurance the race

that God has set before us. We do this by

keeping our eyes on Jesus. Do you see that? We

do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom

our faith depends from start to finish. Jesus was willing

to die a shameful death on the cross because of

the joy he knew would be his afterwards. And now,

He is seated in the place of highest honor beside

God's throne in heaven. Think about all he endured. Think

about all he endured when sinful people did such terrible

things to him so that you don't become weary and

give up. Now, what does that passage tell us? Nobody

experienced greater stress than Jesus Christ. He experienced enormous pressure.

He was criticized constantly. He was misunderstood. There were constant

demands on his life. He had little privacy. And there

were people who were trying constantly to kill him. I

doubt that's true of you, but that's stress. And yet,

when we look at the life of Jesus Christ, we

look at his ministry, we see that he walked and

he lived with an amazing peacefulness. No matter how difficult

the situation became, he modeled a calmness and a resilience

in the face of outrageous demands. And this is why

the book of Hebrews advises us to keep our eyes

on Jesus. And that's what we're gonna do today. We're

gonna watch his example of endurance. We're gonna learn his

secrets of resilience. And today I'm going to unpack Jesus'

seven secrets of resilience. You're going to need this. So

I want to encourage you to take notes. Now we

learn these seven secrets of resilience from Jesus' own words.

Let's get started. The first secret of resilience when you're

under stress is this. Remember how much God loves me.

That's the first antidote It's the first secret of resilience.

It is the principle of compassion. Jesus had no doubt

in his mind that God the Father loved him. He

talks about it over and over and over and over.

John 10, verse 17, the Father loves me. The Father

John 10:17

loves me. Now, knowing and remembering that God loves you

unconditionally and God loves you extravagantly, And God loves you continuously.

And he will never stop loving you. That is the foundation.

That's the first secret, the foundation of a resilient life.

As Paul says in the book of Romans, if God's

for us, who could be against us? Okay, who could

be against us? We are resilient because we know that

God will never stop loving us. Now, I know what

you're thinking. They will, of course, God loves Jesus. He's

his son. But did you know that Jesus said the

same thing about you too? Yeah, in John 15, verse

nine and 10, it says this, Jesus says, just as

the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Now remain in my love. And if you obey my commands,

you'll remain in my love. Now I've talked to you many,

many times about how much God loves you, because it

is really the basis of your personal security. If you're

not convinced that God always loves you, that he loves

you unconditionally, completely, instantly, continuously, that he never stops loving you,

that you can't make him stop loving you. If you

don't really have this foundation of God's unconditional love in

your life, you're gonna be easy prey for the disapproval

of other people. You're gonna be a people pleaser. And

how much does God love you? 1 John 3, verse

one says this, how great. How great is the love

of the father that he's lavished on us that we

should be called the children of God. And that is

what we are. So the first key to resilience is

to build the baseline that God will never stop loving me.

Jesus knew it. You need to know it. Number two,

The second key that we see in the life of Jesus,

and you need this for your stress resistance is this,

remember who I am. Don't just remember that God loves

you unconditionally, remember who I am. This is the principle

of identification. Now, why is this important? Because if you're

not sure who you really are, you're gonna be whipped

around and manipulated and molded by the pressures and the

problems and the other people around you. When you have

a confused identity, when you have an unclear identity, when

you don't really know who you are, it makes you

more prone to stress. Why? Because our culture will try

to fit you in its mold. It's gonna make you

into what it wants you to be. And until you

settle this issue, first, God loves me unconditionally. Second, I

know who I am. I'm a child of God. You're

gonna be prone to stress. Now, we know that Jesus

never had any doubts about his identity. He knew exactly

who he was. In fact, 18 times in scripture, he

publicly defines himself, 18 times. These are famous statements called

the I am statements of Jesus, the I am statements

of Jesus. Mark chapter 14, John 8, John 14, John 6,

Mark 14 · chapter mention

many different places. Jesus says, I am, and then he

fills it in. I am the light of the world.

I am the son of God. I am the way.

I am the truth. I am the life. I am

the bread of life. Over and over, he defines himself.

He knew exactly who he was. Why is this helpful

in handling stress? Well, in John 8, 18, Jesus says,

in other words, I testify to my own behalf. I

don't need other people to tell me who I am.

I know who I am. I don't depend on the

opinions of others to validate myself. Do you do that?

If you depend on the opinions of others to validate yourself,

you are prone to stress. And you certainly aren't resilient

to chronic stress. The fact is, if you don't know

who you are, other people will decide it for you.

They'll force you into a mold. They'll create stress. You'll

end up pretending. You'll end up faking it. You'll end

up wearing a mask. You'll end up trying to be

a man or woman that you're not really who you are.

You're who everybody else wants you to be. And that's

called stress. Stress happens when you try to be something

you're not. Doesn't matter if it's for the sake of

your parents or the sake of your boss or the

sake of your spouse or the sake of your boyfriend.

Doesn't matter who you're doing it for. You're going to

be pressured and you're going to be stressed and you're

not going to be resilient. Now you say, well, of course,

Jesus knew he was the light of the world. Of

course he knew that. But did you know that Jesus

said the same thing about you? He said, I'm the

light of the world. But in Matthew 5, 13 to 16,

Jesus says this, you are the light of the world.

He says, you are the salt of the earth and

you are the light of the world. Don't hide your light.

Do you realize how special God says you are? There's

nobody in the world exactly like you. When God made you,

he broke the mold. Just like God doesn't make two

snowflakes same, God doesn't make clones of people. Even identical

twins are different in thousands of different ways. There will

never be in the history of humankind someone like you

at all. You're unique and you need to know that

God loves you unconditionally and you need to know who

you are. Now, identity, this issue of identity, this is

the second principle, the principle of identity. When you don't

know your identity, it increases your stress. And it comes

out two different ways, comparing and copying, comparing and copying.

Comparing when you say, well, I'm gonna compare myself to

everybody else. God says, don't do that. And copying others,

we all begin as originals, but we end up as

carbon copies of other people. God does not want copies

of anybody. God does not want clones. That's why he

only created one of you. God wants you to be you.

And when you get to heaven, God isn't gonna say,

why weren't you more like Moses? The point is you

must become comfortable with being you. You must accept your

strengths and you must accept your limitations and your weaknesses.

You must accept the truth about you. When you do that,

this second principle, the principle of I know who I am,

you'll have a lot less stress, all right? Now here's

the third secret of resilience that we learn from looking

to Jesus as our model. I know that God loves me.

I know who I am. Here's the third thing. Know

who I'm trying to please. Know who I'm trying to please.

In other words, know who you're living for. Now, this

is the principle of motivation. You need to know what

is your deepest motivation. If you don't know that, if

you haven't figured it out, you are prone to get stressed.

What motivates you every day? You see, mixed motivations are

a third great cause of stress. Jesus said, no man

can serve two masters. This third cause of stress is

trying to please everybody. The truth is you can't. You

get crowd A pleased, crowd B ticks off, get kicked off.

About the time you get crowd B happy, crowd A

is upset again. Did you know that even God can't

please everybody? Somebody's praying for it to rain and somebody's

praying for it to be sunny on the same day.

Somebody's praying for some team to win and others praying

for another team to win or this guy to get

elected and somebody else is praying for somebody else. Everybody

has different expectations, okay? They have different expectations. The Bible

says the fear of man is a trap. It will

capture you. It will cause you to stumble. That's why

Jesus says in John 5, 30, I'm not trying to

do what I want, but only what my Father who

sent me wants. I know who I'm trying to please. Now,

if you're not trying to please God, In all likelihood,

you're trying to please a bunch of people. It's a

whole lot easier to say, I'm just gonna focus on

pleasing God and let the chips fall where they may.

Because if you please God, it'll always be the right thing.

If you don't please God and you're trying to please others,

you just get stressed out with what this person wants,

that person wants. This was the third reason Jesus was

so stress resistant. He was only trying to please one person.

John 8, 29 says, I always do those things that

are pleasing to him. And if you're pleasing God, it's

always the right thing. It also simplifies your life. Because

I don't have to worry about, am I pleasing everybody else?

I'm just trying to please God. Jesus never let approval,

or for that matter, rejection, control him. He lived for

an audience of one. As I mentioned earlier, Luke 16, 13,

no man can serve two masters. You can't please God.

multiple audiences. He focused only on pleasing God. Now, this

is what you need to do if you want to

be resistant to stress and if you want to be

resilient to when you get knocked down. Galatians 1.10, Paul says,

I'm not trying to be a people pleaser. This is Paul.

I'm not trying to be a people pleaser. No, I'm

only trying to please God. If I're still trying to

please people, he says, I wouldn't be Christ's servant. I

love that in the New Living Translation. One of the

biggest myths that will make you miserable is this, I

must be loved by everybody in order to be happy.

That's just not true. You don't need other people's approval

to be happy. But let me ask you, right now,

whose approval are you depending on for your happiness? Who

are you still trying to please? Somebody's been trying to

please an unpleasable parent and they've been dead for a while.

We love to blame other people for our stress. I

have to do this. I must do this. I can't

do that. You are as free as you choose to be.

Nobody can pressure you without your permission. That's why the

third secret of resilience is know who you're trying to please.

Jesus said, I know who I'm trying to please. I'm

only trying to please my father. I'm not worried about

anybody else. That's why we're looking at him as our model.

Now here's the fourth thing that Jesus did. Here's the

fourth secret of resilience and resistance to stress. I need

to not only know God loves me, I need to

not only know who I'm trying to please, I need

to not only know that God has called me, that's

the fourth thing. I know my calling. If you wanna

be resistant to stress, you need to get alone with

God until you know your calling. I must know exactly

and believe exactly what God has called me to do

with my life. Now, this is the principle of vocation, vocation.

And until you clarify this and it becomes crystal clear

in your mind, you're gonna be more prone to getting

stressed out. But when you know what God's called you

to do, you know what God has called you to do,

you also know what God has called you not to do.

In other words, when you're sure of your calling, you

know what's your business, but you also know what's none

of your business. And that simplifies life too. Jesus knew

exactly what he was called to do. Here's the fourth thing.

In John 8, 14, he says, I know where I

came from and I know where I'm going. To me,

that sounds like a purpose-driven life. I know where I

came from and I know where I'm going. He lived

a purpose-driven life. If you're to look up the word

drive in the dictionary, it means to guide or to

control or to direct. When you drive a car, you guide, control,

direct it down the street. When you drive a nail

with a hammer, you guide, control, direct the nail into

the wood. When you drive a golf ball, hopefully you guide, control,

direct it down the fairway. Every life is driven by something.

Some people are driven by guilt. Some people are driven

by fear. Some people are driven by the pressure of others.

You're going to be guided through life by either pressure

or purpose. Let me say that again. You will be

guided through life by either pressures or purpose. The direction

of your life, it's your choice, okay? And by clarifying

your calling and go, you know what? God shaped me

in a certain way. That means whatever you're shaped to

do is what you should be doing. When you know

your shape and you know what God's called you, then

you can avoid the tyranny of the urgent. And until

you clarify your calling, you're gonna be controlled by others.

How many times have you already learned that God loves

you and everybody else has a plan for your life?

James chapter one, verse eight says this, a person who

has doubts, is thinking about two different things at the

same time, they can't make up their mind about anything.

The Bible says you're wishy-washy when your purpose isn't clear,

when your calling isn't clear. That's why Paul says in

Ephesians 4.1, I urge you to live a life worthy

of the calling you have received. Everybody has a calling.

not just missionaries or pastors or church leaders. Everybody has

a calling. Some are called to be pharmacists. Some are

called to be accountants. Some are called to be school teachers.

Some are called to be cab drivers. Each day you

need to ask, am I moving toward my purpose? And

that leads me to the fifth principle of resilience that

we learn from looking to Jesus as our model. And

here's what Jesus did. Number five, focus, on what matters most,

focus on what matters most. Now, this is the principle

of concentration. We've talked about motivation and we've talked about

the compassion of God. This is the principle of concentration.

And what I mean by this is when you know

where you're headed and you focus, then you're not distracted

by less important things. It's a matter of priorities. You

know what matters most in life And you focus on

those things. As I said, everybody has a plan for

your life. You know what I've discovered? That if Satan

can't get you to do wrong, he'll just wear you

out with too many good things. Yeah, yeah. There are

a lot of good things you shouldn't do. Did you

know that? Jesus was a master of concentration. He was

a master of focusing his life. He focused his life

like a laser. and he refused to be distracted. Let

me show you some verses. Luke 9 51, here's an

example of this principle. As the time drew near for

his return to heaven, Jesus moved steadily onward toward Jerusalem

with an iron will. That's the living Bible. What does

that mean? He had a goal, he knew what his

goal was, he knew he was going to die in Jerusalem,

he's persistent, he's determined, He's focused, he focuses, he's clarified

his priorities. Paul's the same way, Paul says, this one

thing I do. Paul didn't say, these 40 things I

dabble in. That's what we do, we dabble in 40 things.

This one thing I do. If you want your life

to count, if you want your life to have impact,

focus is the name of the game. You know, you

have incredible spiritual potential. But the barrier is often you

haven't really settled what's most important. I don't really have

time to serve God. I would rethink that one. I

would rethink that, knowing that one day you're going to

stand before God and he's going to say, what did

you do with what you were given? Some guys gave

that same excuse to Jesus. Lord, let me first go

do something else before I follow you. And that phrase,

let me first, that's always the problem. me first. You

can't say, Lord, let me first, Lord, and me first

are contradictory. Jesus said in Luke 9, 62, anyone who

lets himself be distracted from the work that I plan

for him, God has planned a work for you to do.

Anyone who lets him be distracted from the work I

plan for him is not fit for the kingdom of God.

The older I get, the more I realize selection is

the name of the game. Lots of opportunities, lots of options,

but the key to effectiveness is selection. 1 Corinthians 10.23

says this, we're free to do anything, but not all

things are helpful. Not all things are profitable. Not all

things are wholesome or constructive to your character. and your

spiritual life. I love that, the way it's brought out

in the Amplified Translation. What is he saying? Some things

aren't necessarily wrong, they're just not necessary. That's one of

the keys to resilience, it's one of the keys to

stress resistant. And here's the sixth secret of resilience that

we learn from looking to Jesus as our model. This

is a big one, number six. Spend time alone with God.

Now this secret of resilience. And this secret of stress

resistance may be the secret that you do the least,

spending enough time alone with God. And yet it is

absolutely essential to building a resilient spirit and managing chronic stress.

It is the principle of meditation. You know, prayer is

a great stress reliever. It's a decompression chamber. It's cathartic.

It's one of the ways to unload your burdens. The

Bible says in Luke 22, 39, It was Jesus' habit.

It was Jesus' habit to go to the Mount of

Olives to pray. And his disciples followed him. How do

you develop a habit? Well, a habit is something you

develop through practice and through repetition. It's not a habit

unless you do it over and over and over. It

was his habit to go to the Mount of Olives.

He would leave the city of Jerusalem, go across the

valley to the Mount of Olives and pray there. Now,

This next verse says, in the morning, while it was

still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went

off to a solitary place where he prayed. Do you

have any time like that in your life? You need

quiet times to renew, to reflect, to recharge. I wanna

challenge you on this principle of resilience. Study that Jesus

was convinced of the fact that no matter how busy

he was, he took time to get alone with God

and pray. In Luke chapter five, verse 15 and 16,

we have a good example of it. It says, news

about Jesus spread even more and crowds came to hear

him to be healed. But Jesus often slipped away to

be alone so he could pray. If Jesus felt the

need to frequently leave the crowd and get alone with God,

how much do we need that? It was the famous

philosopher Pascal, who said, most of our problems, man's problems,

come from our inability to sit still. Psalm 46 says,

be still and know that I'm God. Sit down and

shut up. Would you agree that noise is a stress? Well,

let me give you a suggestion. Start your morning with

God instead of your phone, instead of TV, instead of radio.

Set your mood with the good news. Colossians 2, seven says,

plant your roots in Christ. Do that every morning. Plant

your roots in Christ and let him be the foundation

for your life. Now, there's one more secret of resilience

that we learn from looking to Jesus as our model,

and it's this. Number seven, get a small group for support.

Get a small group for support. Do you know the

first thing Jesus did when he started his ministry? He

formed a small group. You see, you were never intended

to handle stress by yourself. If I were to ask

you to complete this sentence, if you want a job

done right, you'd typically say, do it yourself. That's the

motto of a perfectionist headed for burnout. If you want

a job done right, do it yourself. You can't do

every job by yourself. Now, if anybody had a right

to say, if you want a job done right, do

it yourself, if anybody had a right to say that,

it was Jesus. Yet even Jesus knew the power of

having small group for support. And in Mark 3, verse 14,

Mark 3:14

it says he chose 12, that was his small group,

designated them apostles that they might be with him. That's

the point of a small group. He gathered a small

group before starting his ministry. You know, so much of

our stress, friends, is self-imposed. We get uptight when we

think it all depends on us. It doesn't. God hasn't

called you to be the general manager of the universe.

Even Jesus, needed a small group for support. You remember

that when he went to the Garden of Gethsemane before

the cross in Matthew 26, verse 38, Jesus said to

Matthew 26:38

his disciples, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the

point of death. That's severe stress. And here's his antidote.

Stay here and keep watch with me. Even Jesus needed

people to pray with him. Even Jesus needed the support

of a small group when he was in a crisis.

Why don't we accept help from other people? Well, there's

a couple of reasons, insecurity and pride. And it is insecurity,

it's our own insecurity and our own pride that we

don't accept help from others, so we stay stressed out.

Here's the secret, join a small group. If Jesus needed one,

you need one. And the fact is, stress is increasing

in our culture. So you have to take these seven

intentional steps to counteract it. It's not gonna go away.

Your life isn't gonna get less stressful by accident. It

only is gonna get less stressful, more manageable, and you're

gonna have greater resilience if you choose to do these

seven things that Jesus modeled. Now I wanna close by

reading again the passage that we started with in Hebrews 12,

one to three. Listen to it again in light of

the seven things that I said. gave you as a

model from Jesus. Here's what Hebrews 12 says. Since we

are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to

the life of faith, let us strip off every weight

that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily

hinders our progress, and let us run with endurance, run

with endurance the race that God has set before us.

We do this, he's gonna give us the answer. We

do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus from start

to finish. Jesus was willing to die a shameful death

on the cross. Because of the joy, he knew he

would be his afterwards. Now he's seated at the place

of highest honor besides God's throne in heaven. Then it

says this, think about all he endured. Endured. When you

think you're going through a tough time, think about all the,

what Jesus endured when sinful people did such terrible things

to him so that you don't become weary and give up.

I need to mention one more stress reliever that Jesus

didn't need because he was the son of God. You

need a savior. You need far more than the model

of Jesus. You need that. but you need Jesus himself

in your life. You need his presence in your life.

You need his power in your life. You need his

pardon for your sins. You need his peace in your life.

You need his salvation. Matthew 11, 28, 29, Jesus said,

come to me, all of you who are weary and

carry heavy burdens, and I'll give you rest. Take my

yoke on you, And let me teach you because I'm

humble and gentle and you will find rest for your souls.

You know what that verse is? It's salvation. This is salvation.

Are you stressed out? Don't give up. Look up because

Jesus' offer still stands. Come to me. The single greatest

source of stress in your life is this, trying to

live your life apart from a daily connection to Christ.

God is God and you're not. And when I'm disconnected

from Christ or when you're disconnected from Christ, it causes

all kinds of problems, fear, guilt, worry, loneliness. Come back

to Christ today. Give him your stress. He's aware of

the load you're carrying and he says, I'll carry it

with you. Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, thank you

for not only being a model for stress relief, a

mentor for stress relief, but for being the answer to

our stress, we need a savior. If you've never opened

your life to Christ, say, Jesus Christ, come into my

life right now. I need a savior. I need your power.

Just say that, I need your power. I need your presence.

I need your pardon for all the things I've done wrong.

And I need your peace in my heart and in

my mind. I open my life to your love. I

need to not just practice your model, but I need

to have a relationship with you. Please save me in

Jesus name. Amen.