Okay, so there are more than enough things “out there” in our lives, to cause us to stress pretty much 24/7. In fact a lot of people do just that. But what if we could live our lives with a quiet confidence that everything’s going to be okay. Wouldn't that be just brilliant?

Have a listen to this list of stress reduction techniques that one website puts forward, it boggles the mind. Chew a stick of gum, brew some black tea, try a DIY massage, put pen to paper and write it down, listen to some music you love, take a tech break, close your email down for an hour and finally clean the house.

The website - www.oprah.com. Pardon me for saying so but give me a break. Now that's like getting a couple of band aids to put on a gaping wound, that's a shallow, look good, feel great list of superficial things that might, MIGHT alleviate the symptoms of stress for a short time but stress, the underlying condition, the ongoing anxiety and fear that eats away at our thoughts and our emotions and ultimately our health, isn't going to be solved by having a cup of tea or listening to your favourite song while vacuuming the carpet. Do you think?

And can I say stress affects people far more broadly and much more deeply than we sometimes realise. We think that this whole stress thing belongs to other people. We imagine it's for that emotional weakling over there, not for me, I'm strong, I have it all together. But sometimes it's those very strong people who are driven forward by stress, the stress of being seen not to achieve, the stress of failure, the stress of keeping up appearances, the stress of having too many things to do, the stress of a marriage on the rocks that drives the workaholic deeper into his work, normally that's a he right?

We stress about our kids, about our jobs, about how we look, about what other people think, we stress about tomorrow, what will it bring? We stress about, well we stress about pretty much anything or everything. Let me ask you this, what are you stressed over right now? What's the thorn in your side that keeps on making you worry about this or that?

Pretty much everybody can name at least two or three things that are causing them stress right at this moment. Jesus hit the nail on the head, Luke chapter 6, verse 27 when He asked this rhetorical question:

Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to the span of your life?

Well that's pretty much it, that right there just shows us how utterly useless worry and stress are in our lives. They don't achieve anything positive, in fact quite the opposite is true. Stress and worry often immobilises us from doing the things we can do and indeed need to do to deal with a situation that caused the stress in the first place. We just kind of sit there on the sofa worrying about it when getting up and doing A or B would actually reduce the risk or fix the problem altogether.

Call me crazy but let me throw this out there for you to think about. This is absolutely no way for you to live your life and for me to live my life, would you agree? I mean it's totally nuts, it doesn't make any sense, it doesn't achieve anything good and yet countless people are caught up in chronic repetitive, day after day life long stress and for what?

So let me ask you, what if you could replace that with a quiet confidence? Not some false bravado, just a quiet sense of confidence on the inside that, you know, is going to be just fine. What if that was the overriding mindset in life in place of the person who worries about everything? Would that be a worthwhile thing to achieve?

Well that's what I'm aiming for in your life today, not because I happen to be particularly smart or insightful or bright because I'm not but because the Word of God has the power to transform your life completely and utterly and if you'll receive the mighty powerful Word of God into your heart today your life can be utterly transformed.

Hmm, I know what you're thinking, this guy hasn’t a clue what I'm going through, how can he possibly say that? In part you're right, I don't have a clue but God does. I don't have the wisdom but God does. I don't have the power to transform your heart and your mind, your thoughts and your emotions, your very life but God does.

Have a listen to this; it's about a guy called Joshua. For the last forty years or so he's been playing second fiddle to a guy called Moses, leading God’s people, probably over a million of them, through the wilderness relying on God for food and for water and for protection every step of the way.

Problem is Moses has just died, just at the point when they're about to cross from the wilderness over the Jordan River into the land that God’s promised them. Just at the point where they have to gear up for battle after battle because the Promised Land is full of other tribes and nations and they're going to have to take it by force. Just at the point when Moses, the proven, trusted, experienced, wise leader dies and Joshua is put in charge. Stress? Absolutely. Stress with a capital 'S'. This is life and death stress.

If you put yourself in Joshua's shoes, man you'd be stressing out right? Well he must have been because this is what God says to Joshua right at this point in his life. The Book of Joshua chapter 1 beginning at verse 1:

After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses assistant saying, 'My servant Moses is dead. Proceed across the Jordan you and all this people into the land that I am giving them, to the Israelites. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you as I promised it to Moses.

From the wilderness and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the great sea in the west shall be your territory. No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses so I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you.

Be strong and courageous for you shall put this people into possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, be careful to act in accordance with the Law that my servant Moses commanded you. Don't turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may be successful wherever you go.

This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous and then you shall be successful. I hereby command you be strong and courageous, do not be frightened or dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.’

No less than three times God says to Joshua 'Be strong and courageous' and one of those times He says 'Be strong and very courageous'. Why? God’s got a plan, God is in this, God will see His plan through despite the overwhelming odds, despite the impossibility of the task, it's about God and who He is not the enemy and who they are.

And the foundation of Joshua's confidence is to be God’s Word, stay in my Word, think about it, meditate on it day and night so that it doesn't depart from you. As you read on through this Book of Joshua you see under his leadership Israel faced many, many life and death stressful situations but God called him to do it with confidence.

Now sometimes our confidence is misplaced, we put our confidence in our strengths and abilities, we put our confidence in money or in other people or in systems or organisations but when we place our confidence in God, when He's the one we look to and trust and lean on and co-operate with then that confidence is never misplaced.

Hey listen, without faith it's impossible to please God. God wants us to put our trust in Him, that's the whole point. We develop this quiet confidence and that's what carries us through.