Hi girls!
A couple weeks ago (in the front row of church during worship) I had something happen to me that caused extreme stress – I was having symptoms of a stroke (slurred speech, rapid heart rate, pain in chest, sweating, trouble walking, violent shaking), only to find out after a lengthy hospital visit that I had a severe panic attack.
A couple weeks ago (in the front row of church during worship) I had something happen to me that caused extreme stress – I was having symptoms of a stroke (slurred speech, rapid heart rate, pain in chest, sweating, trouble walking, violent shaking), only to find out after a lengthy hospital visit that I had a severe panic attack.
Hospital discharge papers defined a panic attack as “a sudden episode of intense fear during which the person often feels an overwhelming sense of doom or danger, the fear of death, a loss of control, and a strong need to escape.”
I have been confused and honestly, irritated as to why I had this “panic attack” – my life is not that stressful! But I knew there was purpose behind it. God did not cause this to happen to me, but He can redeem what happened to me for His glory.
The week after I had the panic attack was awful. I did not feel like myself at all. There were moments when I felt totally fine. Then, it would shift and I would start having symptoms again. I was agonizing over this a great deal because that week I was scheduled to preach at our church's monthly service at Chino Women's Prison. I turned on the TV to try distracting myself from the panic symptoms. I stumbled upon TBN and started to watch because Joseph Prince was preaching from Israel
Let’s read Genesis 3:19 “By the sweat of your brow your will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
In Genesis 3, we read about the fall of man. God gave Adam and Eve one rule: do not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Satan tempts Eve to do this and she gives in. Adam does too and they break God’s law and His heart. Sin enters humanity for the first time, etc, etc, etc.
There are consequences to sin. I know that and you know that, too. God laid out the consequences for sin to the serpent, to Adam and to Eve. The part that stood out to me was verse 19 – God specifically uses the word “sweat.” I always thought this was just talking about being hot and perspiring, but it goes deeper than that. "Sweat” translated here in Hebrew is only used one other time in the Old Testament and only once in the New Testament.
Sweat comes from the Hebrew word “ze‘ah” meaning: “sweat, likely regarded as unclean” This word is derived from “zuwa” meaning “to tremble, quiver, quake or be in terror, to shake violently.”
Isn’t it interesting that one of the curses put upon man was to “sweat”, specifically while he worked, with an emphasis on his being unclean? In other words, one of the consequences of Adam’s sin was for him to be stressed at his work – and the definition of “sweat” above pretty much sums up a panic attack. Adam and I had a lot in common.
I made the connection that Adam was cursed with feeling stressed at his work and me being stressed at my work. But the application God wanted to show me went deeper.
The second place in the Bible where this word “sweat” (ze‘ah) is mentioned is in Ezekiel 44:18 “They shall have linen turbans on their heads, and linen undergarments on their loins; they shall not bind themselves with anything that causes sweat.”
In this passage, Ezekiel is discussing the duties of the priests while offering sacrifices to God. In other words, he was telling us how they were to go about doing their “jobs.” Their clothes were to be made of linen (a symbol of purity), not wool (which would make one sweat, being that they lived in the Middle East , and sweat would make one unclean).
Matthew Henry’s Commentary says:
“They must dress themselves cool, that they might go the more readily about their work; and they had the more need to do so because they were to attend the altars, which had constant fires upon them. And they must dress themselves clean and sweet, and avoid every thing that was sweaty and filthy, to signify the purity of mind with which the service of God is to be attended to. Sweat came in with sin and was part of the curse. By the sweat of your brow your will eat your food until you return to the ground. Clothes came in with sin, coats of skins did; and therefore the priests must use as little and as light clothing as possible, and not such as caused sweat. When they had finished their service they must change their clothes again, and lay up their linen garments in the chambers appointed for that purpose.”
Let’s break this down: while doing everyday life, God wants us to be:
- clothed in linen (purity)
- Not weighed down by wool/things that cause us to sweat (stressed, unclean)
Isn’t it interesting that the MHC pointed out that the priests must dress themselves cool so they could go about doing their work easier and because they had to attend to the fires around them?
Ø God’s intention is for us to do our work with ease, not stress.
Ø God’s original plan was for work to be enjoyable (Genesis 1:28-30), it was during the Fall that it became stressful.
Ø Constant fire was around the Priests, but they didn’t sweat. When fires are breaking out around you, what is your reaction? Mine is usually stress!
So we see that stress was introduced to humankind at the Fall because of sin. God shows us later on that His intention while doing His work is for it to be stress-free and pure. How is this even possible? Let’s see how Jesus redeems this curse for our good and His glory…
We know now that the word “sweat” is used twice in the Old Testament. Both times, it means literal sweat, extreme stress/panic attacks, and being unclean. In the New Testament the word “sweat” is used once and has a similar, but more powerful meaning. "Sweat” here is translated from the Greek “hydros” meaning “sweat or copious perspiration.” There is nothing unclean associated with this word - this is important, you'll see why shortly.
In this scene, Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, just hours before His arrest and crucifixion.
Luke 22:44, In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.
Dr. Luke is the only Gospel writer who mentions “sweat... like great drops of blood.” His use of the word like may suggest that Jesus' sweat merely fell to the ground like clots of blood. But there is a rare physical phenomenon known as hematidrosis, in which, under great emotional stress, the tiny blood vessels rupture in the sweat glands and produce a mixture of blood and sweat.
[Dr. Frederick Zugibe, a forensic expert from New York
[While the extent of blood loss generally is minimal, hematidrosis also results in the skin becoming extremely tender and fragile, which would have made Christ’s pending physical insults even more painful. (http://creationrevolution.com/2012/01/hematidrosis/)]
As He faced the sufferings that lay ahead, especially being made a sacrifice for sin (2 Cor. 5:21), Jesus’ soul was troubled to the depths. He did not pray in order to discover the Father’s will or try to change it, but to be surrendered to it.[1] The first Adam sinned in a Garden and was condemned to living by the sweat of his brow (Gen. 3:19). Jesus, the Last Adam, obeyed the Father in a Garden and conquered Adam’s sin (Rom. 5:12–21). Wow! Did you catch that? Jesus' sweat was mixed with His blood - the first time Jesus' blood was shed is here, in the Garden, to redeem us from the curse of sweat (stress).
{Selah}
There is one more extremely important fact about this verse. It’s the only time in the entire Bible that the word “agony” is used in this form. (Luke 22:44 - And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.)
"Agony” in Greek is translated here from “agonia” and means:
1) a struggle for victory
2) of severe mental struggles and emotions, anguish
“Agonia” is derived from “agon” which means:
1) conflict, fight, contention, race
2) a place of assembly, the place of contest, an arena or stadium
“Agon” is derived from the word “ago” which means:
1) bring, lead, go, bring forth
2) to lead by laying hold of, and this way to bring to the point of destination.
3) to lead by accompanying to (into) a place.
4) to lead with one’s self, attach to one’s self as an attendant
5) to move, impel: of forces and influences on the mind.
“Anguish is the reflection on evil that is already past, while agony is a struggle with evil at the time present. It is only used in the New Testament by Luke (22:44) to describe our Lord’s fearful struggle in Gethsemane . The verb from which the noun “agony” is derived is used to denote an earnest endeavor or striving.”
Every other time the word “agony” is used in the Bible it means: anguish, pain, torment, sorrow. The verb tense in Greek in Luke 22:44 is the only place it’s used in the present tense – a struggle for victory, a gymnastic exercise, wrestling.
Just before Jesus embarked on His destiny and the climax of His ministry on earth, Satan pressed Him the hardest. Jesus experienced stress and agony as a man would – He felt the physical, psychological and mental stress of the task that lay ahead of Him (crucifixion). Jesus shows us that stress, torment and panic from the enemy can be overcome – with His blood! His own blood was mixed with the sweat/stress brought on by human emotion and Satan’s last attempt to tempt Him to abandon His cause.
Jesus’ blood overcame extreme stress then and it can do the same thing for us today!
And lastly, In Luke 22:43 we see that an angel was sent from heaven to strengthen Jesus. I always imagined God absent from this scene, but indeed He was not. God saw His Son in agony (a struggle with evil in the time present) so He sent an angel from heaven to give Jesus strength. God our Father will never abandon us. In our most desperate moments, He is there providing strength should we choose to accept it.
"Strength" in Greek is translated here as “physical strength, in a fixed position, to assert or wield power, to have strength to overcome.”The only other time this word “strength” is used is in Acts 9:19 when Paul is strengthened right after his conversion and right before his ministry starts. à Isn’t it interesting that both Jesus and Paul were given divine strength to overcome just before embarking on their destiny?
The Bible says that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Therefore, we can trust that the stress and agony that we experience can be overcome by the blood of Jesus. God has unlimited strength that He will give us in every circumstance we face. Our job is to place our hope, trust and faith in Him first. As Pastor Benny Perez said on Sunday: "Jesus died as YOU so that you might live as HIM!"
Reflection/Prayer:
One of the simplest and most powerful ways to combat stress is to pray. And one of our key focuses in the Sisterhood is to be women of prayer. If you already have a full and satisfying prayer life, great! Either way, I would like to introduce you to a form of prayer called “Lectio Divina."
In Christianity, Lectio Divina (Latin for divine reading) is a traditional Catholic practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer intended to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of God's Word. It does not treat Scripture as texts to be studied, but as the Living Word.
Traditionally Lectio Divina has 4 separate steps: read, meditate, pray and contemplate. First a passage of Scripture is read, then its meaning is reflected upon. This is followed by prayer and contemplation on the Word of God. (source: Wikipedia)
So, for the next 2 weeks, I want to challenge you to practice "lectio divina" once a day.
Choose one verse or passage either from our study here or from your daily DNA Journal/Bible reading and go through the 4 steps above:
1) Read
2) Meditate
3) Pray
4) Contemplate
At EVERY Sisterhood bible study, we will be practicing this method of prayer as a group. It's incredible and I promise it will change your life if you're open and willing to hear from God in a new way :)
If you want to change things up with your Lectio Divina time, try using the method with a worship song instead of Scripture. God speaks to us either way! A song that the Lord has placed on my heart lately is "Age to Age" by Hillsong. I will put the link and words below if you want to use it in your prayer time.
At EVERY Sisterhood bible study, we will be practicing this method of prayer as a group. It's incredible and I promise it will change your life if you're open and willing to hear from God in a new way :)
If you want to change things up with your Lectio Divina time, try using the method with a worship song instead of Scripture. God speaks to us either way! A song that the Lord has placed on my heart lately is "Age to Age" by Hillsong. I will put the link and words below if you want to use it in your prayer time.
You gave me hope you made me whole at the cross.
You took my place you showed me grace.
You took my place you showed me grace.
At the cross where you died for me.
Chorus
Chorus
And his glory appears like the light from the sun
Age to age he shines look to the skies hear the angels cry.
Saying holy is the Lord.
Age to age he shines look to the skies hear the angels cry.
Saying holy is the Lord.
I am praying for you to have a STRESS-FREE week filled with joy and peace! We'd love for you to join us at our next Sisterhood bible study on November 10 from 8-9:30am at The Cause Community Church! Hope to see you soon!
xoxo,
Jenny Reeve
[1]Wiersbe, Warren W.: Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the New Testament. Wheaton , Ill.
