Lenten Reflection: Coping With Stress as a Christian
Stress and anxiety may seem like modern inventions, but these feelings are as old as time. The season of Lent invites Christians into reflection on our anxiety, and offers examples of how Jesus managed stress. Lent also invites us into intentional stress - fasting, prayer, and almsgiving as ways to stretch ourselves in the process of spiritual growth.
But these types of intentional Lenten “stressors” (like fasting) also expose us to temptation. When we are hungry, we are tempted - we want to wrest control out of God’s hands so that we can use our own control to stop the discomfort of hunger. We struggle to submit to God’s care in the midst of our stress.
This type of stress-related temptation showed up for Jesus when he was tempted in the desert, as recounted in the Lenten reading of Matthew 4:1-11.
Hunger is stressful. Stress makes us more vulnerable to temptation, as was the case for Jesus in the wilderness. He chose this kind of vulnerability - the Spirit actually led him into the desert and created this stress through forty days of fasting.
There are many ways we might choose to be stressed and stretched for a greater good.
educational experiences
cross-cultural interactions
marriage or celibacy
parenting
vocational commitments
political advocacy
silent prayer/meditation
etc.
These stresses, even when they are led by the Spirit and created for good, make us hungry and vulnerable to temptation.
In Jesus’ hungry state when he was tempted in the wilderness, the temptations of Satan became loud and clear - prove your worth, grab what you can, force God’s hand, take control. If you really belong to God (as the “Son of God”), prove it through your own action.
Temptation claims that moving the locus of control from God’s hands to my own will reduce my hunger & stress, but it actually increases it. Control and power never satisfy or soothe. It’s the same lie Satan told Eve and Adam in the Garden (Genesis 3:1-7) - that it’s best to figure out “good and evil” for yourself and take power into your own hands, because you can’t really rely on God.
Jesus modeled how to trust God in the midst of stress. He was uncomfortable in his hunger and tempted by Satan to take things into his own hands. But instead of wresting control, he chose full trust and surrender to the goodness of his Father, without any need to prove himself or take charge. He lived into what he would later teach us in the Beatitudes - “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6).
Stress and hunger in your life will create vulnerability to temptation, and you will encounter temptation your whole life long. It’s an invitation by the Spirit to get in touch with your true identity as a child of God. Like Jesus, you don’t need to force anything or play games with God so he’ll act on your behalf. You can trust that he will feed you, rescue you, and give you what you need. It will look different than how you think it has to be (as God’s son, Jesus’ mission included rejection, suffering, and death), but your surrender to God’s leading will lead you exactly where you need to go - for Jesus, that was the redemption of the whole world through death and resurrection.
How does the temptation of Christ in the wilderness end? With angels coming and ministering to him. You can trust that those angels are always on hand for you as well as you go through your cycles of vulnerability, temptation, reconnecting with your identity, and engaging with your mission. As a child of God, you will always be cared for, even (perhaps especially) through times of hunger and stress.
As a clinical psychologist, I offer anxiety therapy for adults and adolescents at my in-person office in East Grand Rapids, MI, as well as virtually in 43 states (see list here). Schedule a free phone consultation today to see if we might be a good fit for working together!
