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Stress Test Devotional April 14

by David Joynt on April 14, 2024

Stress Test Devotional April 14

MATTHEW 6:25a | 25a Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life.

Pay attention to location in scripture. The passage on worry is in Jesus’ most important block of teaching in the gospel of Matthew, in what is usually called the “Sermon on the Mount.” It is in the center of chapter six, the middle of the three chapters. This location tells us something crucial about stress from worry.

 

Worry is a major issue for Jesus and for us. Some worry helps us motivate ourselves to complete projects and use our gifts, but debilitating worry is a life sapping, soul-destroying reality in many of our lives. It is linked to the five leading causes of death, it distracts and discourages us, and Jesus wants to free us from it.

 

How much do you worry?

 

 

Gracious God,

Help me turn worry into prayer or action. Let me be free of anxiety. I ask in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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