Look to God for everything you lack -

There is a psalm people pray when they are most afraid.

It gets read aloud at deathbeds and over caskets. It has comforted people for thousands of years. Psalm 23.

We know it as a funeral psalm. But if you read it slowly, you discover something else: it's a manual for living without stress.

Six short verses. And in them lies the answer to seven of the things that press us hardest.

Over the next seven Tuesdays I'll take one verse at a time. We begin at the beginning.

Most of us aren't worn down by the great catastrophes.

We're worn down by the small things that never let up. The bill. The calendar. The feeling of never quite measuring up.

It has a name. Worry. And it's the most common form of stress we have.

There's also more to worry about than there used to be. Nobody lay awake over identity theft thirty years ago. Nobody panicked over a lost mobile phone.

The world has grown more complicated, and with it the list of things we can fear has grown too.

Behind nearly all worry lies the same question: Do I have enough? Will I get what I need, when I need it?

David begins somewhere completely different:

"The Lord is my shepherd; he always provides for me." (Psalm 23:1)

Notice what it doesn't say. It doesn't say "my boss." Not "my spouse." Not "my savings."

It says the Lord.

So much of our unrest comes from asking people for something only God can give.

We put our security in a job, and then the job is gone. We put it in a marriage, and then we lose the other person. We put it in money, and there are plenty of ways to lose money.

There isn't a single human being who can carry the weight of all your needs. They were never meant to.

Paul says it with a logic that's hard to escape:

"God sacrificed his own Son for us! When he has given us so great a gift, will he not also give us everything else we need?" (Romans 8:32)

Sit with that one. If God gave you the most precious thing he had, do you really think he's holding back the rest?

That's why the first step away from stress isn't a technique. It's worship.

I move my eyes off everything I lack and onto him who provides for me. I stop waiting for people to fill a hole only God can fill.

Try it this week. When the unrest shows up, stop and say it out loud: The Lord is my shepherd. I have what I need.

Say it again. Not because the words are magic, but because they turn your gaze to the right place.

Never set your security on something that can be taken from you. You can lose your job, your health, your reputation. But you cannot lose your relationship with Christ.

Put your security there.

What is it you usually ask people for, that you really ought to be asking God for?

What stresses you most these days? Feel free to write in the comments.

You have a shepherd. He doesn't sleep, and he doesn't forget you.