Stressed Out by Health? God Can Help!

SERMON TITLE:                 “Stressed Out by Health?  God Can Help!”
SERMON TEXT:                  2 Kings 5:1-15b
PREACHER:                         Rev. Kim James
OCCASION:                         September 25, 2016, at First UMC
 
 
INTRODUCTION
 
                The other day on the radio, I heard a reporter telling her own story of being a pregnant woman in Florida.  The area where she lives has the Zika virus, and, even as she spoke, she reported having a mosquito bite on her ankle.  She’d been bitten some months earlier in her pregnancy, too, but after that, she’d gotten the all-clear.  This new bite on her ankle hadn’t yet been analyzed.  Can you imagine how much fear and anxiety that might cause in you for your own well-being and the prospects for your baby?
                Risk to our own health and the health of those we care about can cause us an incredible amount of stress.  As we imagine the worst, our worries are magnified.  And that’s just what happens when we don’t know for sure.  While it’s usually a help to receive an actual diagnosis, having to live with sickness, chronic pain, weakness, and deteriorating abilities is quite worrisome too.  The longer we have to cope with such travails of our body and mind, the more our emotions are frayed.  The more we get stressed out.
                A couple weeks ago, we started a sermon series called “Stressed Out?  God Can Help!”  In week one, we talked about how God can help us manage activity stress.  Last Sunday we talked about how God can help us with relationship stress.  Today, I want us to think about our health—or the lack of it.  Let’s consider the story of Naaman in 2 Kings, chapter 5.  When we’re stressed out by health, let’s see how God can help.

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