For some people. stress is a constant companion, if you can call it that. They wish they weren’t stressed, but they just are. There’s a reason for that. It turns out that they’re looking down, instead of up.

Well over these last few weeks we've been chatting about how to deal with the stress in our lives. Not that all stress is bad, some stress from time to time helps us to get things done, to sharpen our game, to deliver, to perform. An athlete about to run a hundred metre dash at the Olympics will harness that nervous energy let's call it, as they line up on the starting blocks. That's a good thing, it's just not good if we're constantly living our lives under stress.

And so we've been chatting in this series that I've called Stress Busters about dealing with the root cause of the stress, no band-aid solutions like listening to soothing music or having a nice cup of tea or patting a cat, they're all nice and lovely but when we're under real stress all those things do is alleviate the symptoms for just a short time.

What we need is to deal with the root cause of the stress. Now immediately people think, 'stress - root cause, right, it's that person, that situation. That medical diagnosis, that thing out there, that's what I have to deal with.' Well perhaps but pressure and stress are two fundamentally different things, those things out there put pressure on us but stress is all about how we react to them. So if we're looking for the root cause of stress it lies inside us in our hearts, in our minds.

So we've chatted in this series about some real stress busters, things that deal with the root cause, learning to trust God, learning how to develop a quiet confidence in Him and how to pray the prayer of peace. How to have a cheerful heart, if you've missed out on any of those messages you'll find them in the series Stress Busters on our website www.christianityworks.com.

Today I'd like to bring all of those lessons together in a practical case study, if you will, by sharing the story of a woman called Hannah. She was the Prophet Samuel's mother in the Old Testament of the Bible but as with many of the great things that God’s doing Samuel's entry into the world wasn't an easy one, at least not for Hannah. It was a stressful time, in fact she was so deeply stressed over a long period of time that it wasn't easy at all.

So just sit back and have a listen to her story, it's a real stressful situation. Here we go, 1 Samuel chapter 1:

There was a certain man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham son of Elihu son of Tohu son of Zuph an Ephraimite. He had two wives, the name of one was Hannah, the name of the other was Peninnah. Peninnah had children but Hannah had no children.

Now this man used to go up year by year from his town to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were priests of the Lord. On the day that Elkanah sacrificed he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters but to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her though the Lord had closed her womb.

Her rival used to provoke her severely to irritate her because the Lord had closed her womb. So it went on year after year. As often as she went up to the house of the Lord she used to provoke her therefore Hannah wept and wouldn't eat. Her husband Elkanah said to her, 'Hannah why do you weep? Why don't you eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?’

After they'd eaten and drunk at Shiloh Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the door post of the Temple of the Lord. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. She made this vow.

‘O Lord of hosts if only you will look on the misery of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant but will give to your servant a male child then I will set him before you as a Nazirite until the day of his death. He shall neither drink wine nor intoxicants and no razor shall touch his head.’

As she continued praying before the Lord Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying silently, only her lips moved but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk so Eli said to her, 'How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.' But Hannah answered, 'No my Lord, I am a woman deeply troubled. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Don't regard your servant as a worthless woman for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.’

Then Eli answered, 'Go in peace, the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.' And she said to him, 'Let your servant find favour in your sight.' Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband and her countenance was sad no longer.

Beautiful story. You can't help but feel for Hannah and what she was going through. It was a really big thing in that culture for her not to be able to have a child. They basically believed that if you were a good person who honoured God He would bless you with many children but if you weren't He wouldn't. So Hannah was looked down upon by all and sundry particularly by Peninnah, her rival we're told. The other wife who was delivering plenty of sons and plenty of kids, just imagine how much stress that was putting on Hannah.

Firstly she couldn't have any children and any woman whose body clock is ticking and who desperately wants kids but can't have them knows how devastating that is just on its own. Add to it the constant niggling and whispering and derision from her rival, there they were competing for their husbands affections these two women, I just can't begin to imagine what an awful additional layer of stress that heaped on Hannah.

And then there were the social and religious expectations, everyone treating her just like she was a leper. She could have spent the rest of her life wallowing in the morass of pain and self-pity. But Hannah took some decisive action, she poured it all out to God. Instead of constantly looking down at the terrible circumstances she was in, she lifted her gaze and looked upon Him and deeply distressed we're told, poured her heart out to God and asked Him to do something.

And before she even got an answer, before she even fell pregnant, listen again to the impact of this prayer on her whole being, on her countenance, on her life:

She went back up to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband and her countenance was sad no longer.

There you have it. The peace that passes all understanding, she did exactly what Paul the Apostle counselled his friends in Philippi to do over a thousand years later. He said:

Don't worry about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God and the peace that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians chapter 4, verses 7 and 8.

See we don't need to clean up our act before we go to God, we don't have to be full of confidence and self-assured and together before we go to God. He just calls us to come as we are and to pour it all out and we should never ever be afraid to do that. In fact elsewhere in the New Testament Book of Hebrews this is what God says to us about this very thing:

Let us therefore approach the throne of Grace with boldness so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in times of need.

Hebrews 4, verse 16.

Don't you love that word 'with boldness'? So as our time in this series Stress Busters draws to a close let me counsel you to do exactly the same. Do what Hannah did. Lift up your eyes, pour your stress out on God and my friend He will act and whatever the outcome to your stressful situation, He will give you peace. It's just what He does.