The Torah reads, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1.
It is a simple yet profound statement. I think fully understanding this statement can remove a lot of our unnecessary stress. One of the reasons so many of us are plagued with worry about work, education, and other daily concerns is because we begin with ourselves as the focus and solution to our needs instead of God. Instead of understanding that it is God that is ultimately responsible for providing everything we assume we are or at least act like it.
No one was created to be their own Creator. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take responsibility for doing the best we can with the options we have in life. “Whatever you are capable of doing, do with all your might because there’s no work, thought, knowledge, or wisdom in the grave, which is where you are headed.” Ecclesiastes 9:10n “The desires of the lazy will kill them, because their hands refuse to do anything.” Proverbs 21:25. We do have power to create different situations for ourselves based on choices we make and are encouraged to be wise, but we are not to depend on ourselves as the ultimate source or solution for all of our needs. God is our provider, and without God we can do nothing. While we go about our lives if we remember that the real source of all that we have and will need is God we won’t carry such a heavy burden.
Trying to fulfill the role of the ultimate provider, which only God should have, is not good for our mental health. But we can also make a similar mistake by holding others to expectations that only God can meet, which can destroy relationships. No human should be seen as the source of your heaven or earth. No one can live up to the role of provider the same way God can; to think so is only setting yourself up for disappointment, and is unfair to the other person. While we are to do the best we can for ourselves and others we need to remember that God alone is the one who can make everything work and lean on the Creator to create our lives in the way God deems best instead of depending solely on ourselves or anyone else.
So whatever you need to do, place God’s ability, not yours, at the beginning of your thought process. Don’t think of God simply as a last resort and to turn to Him in prayer when everything else stops working. Let God create your life instead of trying to create everything yourself. If you understand it is God that gives you the ability to do something you can also trust God to help you use it in the correct manner and take care of the circumstances in which you need to use it if you ask. Remembering God at the beginning of your day and at the start of any difficulty stops you from putting undo pressure on yourself (or others) to perform throughout the day and makes things much better. When we stop acting as if we have to take on the role of God in our own lives we can be free to live without all of that unnecessarily stress.
