Can the Bible help you deal with pressure?

Most Christians are aware that God’s Word, the Bible, can help in pressure-filled times of life. When the Apostle Peter said to Jesus, “You alone have the words of life,” he was only saying in advance what many have come to know by experience. Believer after believer can quote a verse that accompanied them through a time of sickness. Others can recall a passage shared during a funeral service bringing comfort to a broken heart.

What you may find surprising, though, is that a large number of the general population also turns to the Bible to help them deal with pressure. A 2013 survey by LifeWay Research and Bible Studies for Life found 25% of Americans had searched the Bible within the previous month to help them deal with pressure. When the timeframe is expanded to a full year the number rises to 42% of Americans.

Searching for and finding truth

This is significant because people are searching for the truth and are turning to the source of it! When two-fifths of Americans have, on their own, looked to the Bible to help them in the last 12 months, the door is already open. We need to walk through it with a focus on God’s Word as the unchanging source of help.

As General Editor of Bible Studies for Life, it was important to me that this curriculum be structured and written in a manner where people recognized that there is nothing in this world more important than knowing that God’s Word applies to every aspect of our lives. Bible Studies for Life has been designed to facilitate gaining wisdom from the Bible.

When under pressure people want to know “Does the Bible speak to my situation? Is there something in it that can help get me through this?” The answer is a resounding “Yes!” God’s Word is living and powerful. It speaks today. It speaks every time it is referenced in a worship service, on a street corner, in a phone call, or in a group of believers studying it together.

The living Word

The writer of Hebrews called God’s Word “living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). There is no area of life it cannot touch, and no time we cannot plunge into its rich pages to find help.

Consider the circumstances during which many Psalms were written: hiding from an angry king, hiding from an angry army, after deliverance from battle, while being oppressed by enemies, and various other troubled times. Yes, the Psalms are songs that lead us to worship, but they also point to the writer’s source of help: God’s Word. In Psalm 119 alone, God’s Word is described as many things like: instruction, His ways, precepts, statutes, commands, righteous judgments, decrees, and wonders. How can it be any less for us?

People will find rest, comfort, guidance and assurance in the Bible.

Yours for the Great Commission,

Ronnie W. Floyd