Good morning, everyone, and welcome back to the messy masterpiece podcast, which had

in Torian. Happy, friday. Yay. We're in sync on that one. We hope that your week is winding

down great and you have a lot of things to be thankful for. Other than that, I think we're

just going to jump into today's episode. Yeah, let's do it. We are picking up on day two of our

finding freedom from stress devotional. In the Bible app, there's a link to that in the description

of this podcast. If you want to follow along, I'm going to read the scriptures always, and then Torian's

going to read the Devo. The scripture is Philippians 4 verses 12 and 13, and it says this,

I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in

every situation. Whether it is with a full stomach or an empty one, with plenty or a little,

for I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength. I love that. I feel like we've

been talking about that for so long lately. The devotional says, what are you putting emphasis on?

One of the first definitions of the word stress was drawn tight, which is a pretty accurate way to

describe how being stress feels. You feel like you can't breathe or think like you're restricted.

A few years later, the word expanded to have a figurative meaning. The earliest definitions were

to put emphasis on or lay pressure on something by relying on it. Again, it hits the nail on the

head, right? When we're stressed about something, we're putting emphasis on our problem. And that's

okay sometimes, but we have to ask ourselves, are we putting more emphasis on our problems or on

our God? Jesus challenged us about this in Matthew 6. He explained that we don't have to worry

about what comes next in our lives. Instead, he invited us to trust him. He asked us to consider

whether we truly believe he is a good father who cares about us, because we genuinely believe

that he wants the best for us. Then we can stop worrying so much about what's in front of us.

One especially striking thing Jesus said was, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,

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