Are You Running On Stress or Strength?
by Chassidy Allen
May 10, 2026 · Centerpointe Apostolic Church (Murfreesboro, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: John 15:5, Isaiah 40:29-31, Philippians 4:19, Isaiah 40:29, Psalms 103:14, Jeremiah 2:13, John 15:5, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Psalms 121:1-2

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/chassidy-allen--are-you-running-on-stress-or-strength
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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happy Mother's Day. We have so much to be grateful for, don't we? God is really good. He's really good. >> >> Amen. We can go get a cake. No, I'm just kidding. >> >> I did offer the iPad to any preacher that walked by me today. I was like, "You want to preach today? You want to preach today?" But I do believe the Lord has given me something to share with you. And so, here we go, you know? I acknowledge all the mamas that are in here. Some of you have full hearts, some of you have empty hearts, and some of you have just this mix of in between. Wherever you are, and whatever's happening, whatever you're feeling deep inside, I want you to know that the Lord sees you. >> >> And God loves you deeply in this season that you're in. Sister Joanne, Sister Rebecca, wow. >> >> Every ladies that had a part of that, I mean, honestly, I was fussing in that I I'm not crafty. I was like, "I don't know what I'm doing here." But, oh my goodness, my heart is overwhelmed to think of all the hours and time and love and prayers that were put into that. And thank you doesn't seem adequate enough, but I really, really do appreciate it. My husband's been good to me. I always kind of like when I get the microphone and I can look at you like you look at me every time you get up here.

And he's probably like, "What's she going to say?" I never let him read my notes. So, but he's been patient with me. And y'all, he's been on standby >> >> because I didn't actually give him the full commitment that I would speak to you today until Wednesday, when he said, "Babe, I have to know." And it wasn't that I wasn't praying or trying to seek the Lord for this day or this moment. It's just that our days have been really full and they've held a lot recently. And I just I was trying to make my way through. >> >> And so I appreciate him. He's always and you know, I may hand it off to you still. We'll see. I have a beautiful mom. Where is she? Oh, she's in Florida. Mom. I was so Mom, you better be watching this right now. Having the best time in Florida. I forgot you were at the beach. Well, she's wonderful and she's beautiful and I wish you could, you know, get to see her today. My mother-in-law. She's a jewel to me and look, there she is. She's so good to me and I thank God for you. Sister Priest would normally be here, but she's also a bonus mom of mine. She's speaking out today, but I appreciate her influence on my life as well. All of them are gifts to me. >> >> I know it's going to be a little different.

I'm not a preacher. I probably won't shout the house down. But I'm going to just let you know what the Lord laid on my heart and as it normally happens, you have to live it before you get to talk about it. And that's the worst part. And if I'm being honest, I'm really not out of this season yet. I'm still learning. >> >> So, let's just decide we're all going to be in it together, me and you, you and me. A lot of my talking today will be directed to moms. But if you're not a mom in here, the principles in the word of God are still the same. No matter who you are, no matter what stage of life you're in, so the Lord can still speak to you. I don't know about you, but the month of May has already exhausted me. Has anyone else just can Thank you. Yes. Yes. It's May 10th and I'm like man. Every day feels like a week. And you know, goodness. I mean, Mother's Day in the month of May. I mean, that figures, right? That tracks. We have graduations, graduation parties, field trips, concerts, recitals, field days, dress-up days, appreciation days, testing, ball games, practices, weddings, babies, showers, class parties, final exams, playoffs, championships, Mother's Day, Memorial Day, vacation planning. Shall I continue? Is it any wonder that May is also mental health awareness month?

Anybody else see the irony in that besides me? Yeah, okay. It's a lot. It's a lot. I see parenting in three different areas, categories, if you will. all of us that are parenting, all of us that are mamas, we have moments of joy with our kids, right? We have these moments where our hearts are so proud, they feel like, you know, they could just burst open cuz we're so thrilled with a new word they said or a decision they made or how they're doing in school, the list goes on and on. And then there's another area of parenting that involves a little bit of maybe heartbreak and disappointment. It's those times when we're let down. It's those times when we're hurting by something that our children have done or have chosen to do or what not. But then the largest area would be that middle in-between area. And that's where I want to focus on today is the in-between because it's holy work what we do. And it's where we live day-to-day. And from the perspective of a mom, it starts with the gestation of that tiny human being. It's the manufacturing process of a new life. Or it could be the adoption process which takes real work to get through. I've not adopted myself, but I know those that have and it's a lot. It's a process. Physical healing must occur after delivery no matter which way that little baby got here.

And energy is then poured into sustaining this little life. They're all yours. We feed them, we diaper them, we sleep, then we repeat over and over. Then we're working on milestones and then we're dealing with sickness and we're dealing with tantrums. We discipline, we teach, we correct, we child-proof the house. Then we teen-proof the house. Electronics anybody? Yeah. We pray, we worry, we decide, we change our minds, they grow up, we start parenting adult children, we guide, we counsel, we pray some more. Then we learn how to be in-laws. And eventually you learn how to grandparent. We work jobs, we work in ministry. We have our own health to manage and pets to clean up after. And then sometimes unexpected life events are thrown in on of it all and we find ourselves reeling cuz that that's a lot. It's a lot. So, how do we do it? How is it that we manage the in-between? Well, today, I'm glad you asked, I want to talk to you about that. We have a choice. God is so good and he gives us that choice and we can choose his way. We can choose his strength. This is not new. You all know this. But why is it when we have that knowledge that so often we tend to choose our own way and we slug along in the exhaustion that comes with it? Did I say I'm in this season with you?

God's really been working on me. When we aren't relying on him, we've got to have something to go to. So, what is it that propels us through the in-between? Well, it's stress. And stress is a really interesting thing. It's been studied extensively and God actually designed our bodies to be able to handle stress for a short amount of time. I'm a nurse and so the physiology behind things fascinates me. So, I'm just going to go over a little bit about how God made our nervous system and how your body reacts to that. The first one is the fight or flight as you've probably heard it. they've also added the freeze and fawn. Anybody heard of that? So, fight, obviously, you're ready to fight someone. Flight, you're ready to run. If you freeze, you're just paralyzed. You don't know what to do. You stand there and hope for the best or hope somebody comes and rescues you. Or you fawn, which is apparently when you try to appease something in a situation to make it go your way. So, maybe a little negotiating, maybe you're really turning on the charm, and that's your way to get out of something that your body perceives as danger. It's your body's built-in survival state. It's our sympathetic nervous system, and it activates when we sense danger or stress, and it prepares us to stay safe. I don't know about you, but when I was reading those definitions and I was freshening up on that, I was thinking, I feel like I've felt all of those things at one time or another in a grocery store with my toddler.

I don't know whether to fight him, run away from him, just stand there and ignore it, >> >> or negotiate, and usually I negotiated something had to give. But then there is the parasympathetic nervous system. And that's our rest and digest. That's the body's calming and recovery state. It activates when we feel safe, and it helps us relax and heal and connect. It helps us digest our food. It's when we think clearly. Which one of those sounds better to you? Living in that rest sounds better to me. But some of us are fueled by stress and we don't even know it. Some of us don't know how we would live without it. It's just kind of our day-to-day. It's how we manage. It's how we get through. It's how we get things done. It's how we get those to-do lists knocked out of the way. We're driven. We put our head down. We work. We go to the next thing. Then we do the next thing. And before you know it, we've forgotten that we're fueling ourselves with the wrong thing. I've had to realign some things in my own life after reviewing where I was after I answered the question of what is fueling me in this in between. And stress can fuel us for a little while. There's no doubt about that. Not all stress is bad. Obviously, if you're actually in danger, if you actually need to run away from a threat, it's really good that those things kick in.

You need to run. You need to move. Sometimes you need to fight. But stress is not sustaining. And chronic stress is actually damaging. His strength is the only sustaining source. So, as I was looking and studying and I'm going to get to my points in a minute, I promise, but I found a few video clips. Actually, Emery sent them to me, my youngest daughter, Emery. She's 14. she found some video clips and this girl, when she was three, four, five years old, she loved the camera. she loved attention. She loved video. And so, I found a couple of these and I thought, "Huh, I might just embarrass her a little bit and show a couple of those today." So, I'm going to show the first one. She's got a little wisdom about being a mom. So. Hello, everybody. Good morning. Today, we're going to learn about moms. Moms know everything to be perfect and they aren't sweet sometimes. Thank you. Bye-bye. In case you weren't able to make that out, she said, "Moms know everything to be perfect and they are sweet sometimes." I wish she still felt that way. >> >> But let's be honest about that concept of being perfect for a minute. Being a mom, you know, it requires a pretty unique skill set. You can unload the dishwasher, cook dinner, have a full conversation, help with homework, and break up a fight all at the same time.

Like it's amazing. You respond to mom or maybe bruh approximately 437 times every single day. You've mastered the ability to find things that no one else can find that are literally right in front of them. This one is not limited to your children. >> >> It's my day, babe. >> >> You've said things you never ever thought you would say. Things like stop licking that. Things like no, we don't throw the cheese. In my house, I have said, "You will be a lady if it kills me." Or lastly, the one everybody said, "Because I said so, that's why. The end." And somehow everyone in the house just assumes, you know, that mom knows it, she has it, she'll handle it. And if we're not careful, we start to believe and live out the belief that I have to be everything they need. And that belief sounds noble, but it's a trap. It's a trap, y'all. Our reliance on him slowly dwindles. So, we start to feel the need to be their everything. And it's a dangerous place, and it's a it's something you won't even realize it's happening sometimes until you're just exhausted beyond belief and you have nothing left to give and you're like, "How did I get here?" Here. Lately, my phone charger has been very unreliable. Some mornings I wake up to a 100% charge, and it's great. And then other mornings I'll look at it and it's 8% because my cord has not been connected to power.

It's frustrating. So frustrating. I'll let the video play here. Little Emery had one more bit of advice about cell phones. So, let's watch one more video. >> >> Hello everybody. Good morning. Today we're going to learn about phones. Phones have to charge up when they're dead. And when they're dead, you have to charge them up. Thank you everybody. Goodbye. That was a profound statement that when phones are dead, you have to charge them. And you have to charge them when they're dead. I don't know about you. If you've ever tried to stretch your phone on an 8% battery for the entirety of your day, you know, you might can do it a little bit. You stay off, you turn all your settings down, and you know, you try to stretch it, but eventually it dies. And when I wake up to start a busy day and I over to turn that alarm off like the third time it goes off. And then I see that it didn't charge when I'm sleeping, I just get irritated. I get kind of mad about it. I've blamed the outlet, I've blamed my phone. I may have blamed my husband a time or two. He takes really good care of me, y'all. But it doesn't matter what I do, it doesn't matter how close I lay this to the outlet, it doesn't matter how many times I keep connecting the faulty cord unless I restore the connection to the power it's not going to charge.

And I know you know where I'm going with this, but a lot of us live like that spiritually. We try to be our own source of strength, peace, wisdom, provision. If I do more, go more, be more, act more, commit to more then I can make it. But most of us know that if you wake up, spiritually speaking, on a 7 to 8% charge you're probably not going to last over breakfast before there's a blowup. Because what little bit of patience you might have woke up with it is going to be gone the minute something happens with your kids getting ready for school or traffic on your way to work, you name it. You know what I'm talking about. Scripture says this in John 15 and 5. It says, "I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing." And then I want to read Isaiah 40:29 through 31. This is such an encouraging word for me today. He gives power to the weak and to those who have no might he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary. And the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint. So, I got four general reminders for us today. And by us I mean me and you. The first one is to remember that God is your source. I know y'all know this. It's not a profound thought or statement, but sometimes I need to be reminded because sometimes I just don't even think about it as I'm going about my day, especially in busy, crazy seasons like this. God is my source. He's everything we need. Philippians 4:19. And my God will supply all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Why don't we ask for his help? What do you need? Pray for it. Pray specifically for it. Pray in detail. God is very concerned about your needs, about where you are and what it is that you're struggling with. Isaiah 40:29, I like that part where it says he gives strength to the weary. But I want you to notice what it doesn't say. It doesn't say that he rewards the strong. Y'all, that's where I live my life half the time. I'm a doer, an achiever. I want to get it all done. I want to be like, "Oh God, look look at all the things that I did." But his word doesn't say he rewards the strong. It says he gives strength to the weary. And I know that all of us in the room feel pressure at some time or another to be the source of so many things, things like patience, peace in your home, have all the answers, being emotionally stable, providing, calendar management.

Like I need an assistant just for that sometimes. But if we're honest, it can feel like if I don't hold this together, everything's going to fall apart. So we grab another coffee, we grab another energy drink, we grab another Coke Zero, we go through the drive-thru, we stay up too late, we overbook, and then we repeat that cycle until we're just in survival mode. And we're running on low-key stress. Psalms 103:14 says, "For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust." We aren't the exception. Sometimes I feel like I am. I'm sure you never feel that way, but I do. But we're not the exception. We're all human. We're all limited. God knows this, and today I'm here to remind you that God sees you. He sees every heavy sigh. He sees every frustrated tear. He sees every sleepless night. He knows where you are, and he's simply wanting you to come back and say, "God, I it's you. Will you help me? And it's a supernatural thing. It's one of those things I can't really explain cuz it's not like the needs get any less. And it's not like my calendar gets any less full. But somehow he comes in with provision. And with strength and with energy and all of the things that you need. And he says, "I've got you in this." But he wants you to ask. The second gentle reminder is when we try to be our own source, we burn out.

That cell phone battery I was telling you about, I feel like burnout is like a dead cell phone because just cuz it's dead, it doesn't mean it's any less valuable. It's a valuable piece of equipment. It still holds all of the resources and information and all of the things that have been put into it. But if it's dead, it can't be accessed. Burnout is so much like that. Whenever we are spent and we literally just cannot even be powered on anymore, God doesn't write you off. He doesn't take this and say, "Well, I'm done. Too bad." No, the value is here. It just needs to be reconnected to the source. When we are relying on our self, we are going to end up without fail being exhausted. We're going to end up with anxiety of some sort. We're going to feel that constant pressure. We may wrestle with guilt. And then we start to compare. And I'm going to tell you this. Side note, not in my notes. It's not all your fault for feeling like you have to be all things to all people. I will tell you the culture in this world when I get on an Instagram, I don't know if I need to be a homesteader, making my own butter and milking the cows and doing all the things or if I need to be a girl boss and I've got a side hustle and I'm influencing everybody.

Like I don't know. And some days I feel like I need to be one in the morning and one in the afternoon. It's not entirely your fault, okay? Society and the world is just pushing this stuff on us all the time, but I'm here to remind you that no matter what we see, no matter what's out there, there has to be a moment where we turn it all away and we say, "God, without you, I can do nothing." >> >> If I'm not abiding in him, then it's time for me to find my way back. Jeremiah 2:13 says this. In Jeremiah, he's speaking to a faithless Israel right now. God has tasked him to give specific word. And verse 13 says this, "For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewn themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." They made two mistakes. They're called evils in scripture. Sin, if you'd like to say it that way. The first one is they abandoned him as their source. Ouch. God got really, really upset about that. What we tend to kind of push back into the background of I'm going to get back to that later. God called evil. And then the second thing they did that really upset him is they tried to sustain themselves. They were building cisterns. They were cracked. They weren't holding the provision that he had for them.

And when we depend only on ourselves, that's exactly what we're like. We can come here every Sunday and we can get filled up. We can have the glory of the Lord visit us and he can renew us and strengthen us, but if we're going out on Monday and we're falling right back in relying on ourself, we're just like that cistern that's fractured, it's broken, and it all just leaks out. We were never designed to run on a self-sufficient fuel source. We were created to contain blessings of God and to be so full of his spirit that it flows out from the top and it touches everything around us. It touches my babies. It touches my husband. It touches my co-workers. It touches everyone and everywhere that I go. But how can I be overflowing if my container isn't secure? Third point, third reminder, others don't need us to be a perfect source. They need us to be a connected one. We were reminded in John 15:5 that he is the vine. Abiding in him is strength and the pressure of perfection, it can be surrendered. And that is such a powerful shift. It's intentional. It's not going to happen accidentally, but it's a powerful shift when that happens. Your kids, mom, hear me today, your kids do not need a mom who has it all together. They need a mom who knows where to go when she doesn't.

What they learn from you is often more important than whether you handled every moment perfectly. Where you turn when you're overwhelmed, how you handle conflict, what dependence on God looks like. I have apologized to my girls. I think all three of them are in here today. I don't know where they're all sitting. 1 2 3. Okay. I've apologized to y'all many times through the years. And I've gone to them and I've said, "I made a mistake. >> >> I shouldn't have talked to you like that. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that. I shouldn't have been so hard on you. I shouldn't have had so many expectations." And sometimes now that I've got a couple of adult children, I can sometimes drift into this thinking of regret and think about things I could have done differently, situations I could have handled differently or better. Knowing what I know now, there's a lot of things that, you know, not not bad things, but just moments I remember where I failed as a mama, where I failed in setting the tone of the home. But, I'm going to tell you honesty and humility in those moments go a long, long way. And that goes for mom, for dad, for grandparent, for student, for young married, whoever you are in this room, it goes a long way. Knowing that God gives strength in weakness and that His provision covers my deficiencies, that's what helps me take those thoughts captive and not live in regret.

You don't have to show up perfectly. Just show up honestly. As John Ortberg says, it's better to be an honest mess before God than a dishonest saint. I met the Lord like that this week. I laid down before him and I said, "I'm a mess. May has worked a number on me. There's a lot of things I'm carrying and holding and I just felt him so sweetly. He was there. And it was beautiful. And the most beautiful part, I think, is the next reminder. And that is that God's strength shows up where you feel weak. Second Corinthians 12:9 says this, "And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly I will boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.'" Culture says, "Be self-sufficient. You got this. Girl, you got it. You got it. Girl boss. You can do all the things. You can do all the things." But, the word says, be God-dependent. Real strength is recognizing that I cannot keep operating unless I have his power. I just can't do it. And in fact, the very places where you feel like you're failing, oftentimes, your patience, your energy, your emotional capacity, that may be the exact place that God wants to meet you and say, I'm your source. So, you may say, okay, yeah, all that's great and good and wonderful and I hear you.

I hear you. How do I make that change? It's not hard. Recognition and then a prayer. You recognize it and then you pray. And you let the Lord meet you where you are. Prayer before pressure, we know this, but y'all let's keep trying. Don't give up. Open your Bible again. Keep praying. Let your silent tears become prayers for help instead of tears of frustration. Breathe the name of Jesus in. Turn your mind back to God's faithfulness and his provision. Sometimes you just need to walk down memory lane, don't you, to give you some perspective? Count your blessings, name them one by one. Sometimes I got to go back and I've got to count some of those blessings in my life when I feel overwhelmed, when I feel too stressed, when I'm frustrated. He's been good to me and he's been good to you. Ask before acting and reacting, God, what do you want me to do here? Instead of blowing steam, instead of flying off the handle, God, how do you want me to mom in this moment? And then you check your source and you got to check it routinely. I'm notorious for leaving all things vehicle maintenance to my husband. A light comes on, I don't know what it means. I'm going to drive until the car stops. I'll send him a picture. You know, but there's things he gets after me about and he's like, "Babe, you got to tell me when it's doing this or you got to check on this cuz you're going to run that thing into the ground.

You're going to blow the motor up. How many ti- I don't know. You say all the things." He fusses. But it's in a good way. And I'm thankful that he's mindful for those things because without him, I don't know what I'd do. I guess I'd be calling an Uber everywhere cuz I wouldn't have a working car. But we have to check our source, right? We have to check on those things. We got to stay in touch and stay in tune. Am I running on stress or am I running on his strength? At the end of the day, you don't have to be everything your family needs. You simply need to stay connected to the source. I want to ask Brother Eddie to come. He's going to play a song for me. I wasn't going to end this way, but then this morning, I was praying and I felt the Lord bring this song into my mind and I have not thought about this song in years and years and years and I'm probably going to date myself. But I'm going to share it with you because the goal is not to raise families or to lead homes or to live life out of your own strength. The goal is to stay connected so that God can carry you through it all and so that your life can become a witness to others in the process.

Psalms 121 verses 1 through 2 says, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help." My help cometh from the Lord >> >> which made heaven and he made earth. He made you and he made me. But you got to lift up your eyes because help comes from the Lord. And sometimes it just takes a moment where I finally just stop and I say, "Okay, God, I'm sorry. Quiet my mind. I need you. I need you again." And here's what I imagine his response being. I can see myself just saying, "Lord, I need you. I'm here. I'm broken. I'm tired. I'm really, really tired." And he in his gentle way says, "It's okay. >> >> I've got you. Your help comes from me. It's what I do. I help. I increase your power. I give strength when you're tired. Remember my strength is perfect in your weakness. Okay, you're run dry. That's all right. Plug back in. Draw your power from me. >> >> It may take a minute to charge back up, but that's okay. Strength is coming. I've got it coming. You need wisdom. I've got that, too. Just ask me. >> >> Come back to your source. Stop running on 8%. Plug back in. >> >> You may need some system updates before you're fully restored when you power back on, but don't get frustrated and trust the process.

>> >> I'm renewing you. I'm refining you. I'm filling you back up so you can continue, so you can be a mom, but you can also be a wife. You can do both of those things simultaneously. >> >> So, you can be a wife, but you can also be a minister. So, you can be a minister and also be a witness. It's okay if you've placed blame. I know you're tired. I remember >> >> your dust. I know you've been through a lot. I know you've been stretched in a million ways. It's okay. Come back. Connect with me. I will see you through. And I'll lift your stress if you come back to my strength. It's not in trying, but in trusting. It's not in running, but in resting. >> >> It's not in wondering, but in praying >> >> that we find the strength of the Lord. >> >> Some of you need strength in the room today. It's not in your efforts. It's not in your running. It's not in your questioning, even, but your strength is in the Lord. But when we turn to the Lord >> >> at the end of ourselves, like we've done a time or two before, we find his truth is the same as it always was. We never will need more. >> >> It's not in trying, but in trusting. >> >> It's not in running, but in resting.

>> >> It's not in wandering, but in praying that we find the strength of >> >> the Lord. >> >> I'd like for all of us to stand in this place. >> >> If you've been the one that's been crying and trying, if you're tired, if you're feeling a little burnout, I want to invite you. I just want to invite you to have a conversation with the Lord. Try it. Taste and see the Lord is good. He's faithful. He has rest for you. Lord, I thank you for every person in the room, God, I thank you especially for our moms. I thank you, Lord, for your word. Lord, I invite you today >> >> back into my heart, back into my schedule. Where my energy has been weak, where I've been deficient, where I lack, Lord, will you just come? Will you minister to our mothers today? Will you minister to everyone in this room, God, but will you give a special dose of your strength to every mom in this room that carries the weight of, "Am I doing a good enough job?" Lord, you're our everything. You're our everything. We trust you today, Jesus.