How do you manage stress? Picture these modern stress management scenarios.
A young woman rushes into Starbucks, brows knitted, fists clenched tight and orders a Venti Mocha Latte, “Double espresso please.”
A child chews on the eraser end of her pencil as she bends over her social studies test.
Fighting through rush-hour traffic a man tightly grips his steering wheel and screams at the driver who just cut him off.
All of these people tried relieving their stress in different ways.
A few years ago I attended a workshop on overcoming stress. There is no way to escape stress. We all face work deadlines, family responsibilities, monthly bills, crazy-mad traffic, and long, long, long checkout lines.
The speaker at the workshop said that while stress solutions like deep breathing and cat naps might reduce stress for awhile, there is only one real way to truly manage stress.
Change your mindset.
Since we can’t change the length of the checkout line or the work deadline, we must change how we think about them.
Often when we are under stress we have a series of sentences we repeat over and over to ourselves. For instance, when a work deadline looms your brain might sing a refrain of:
I’m just no good at this.
I’ll never get the project done on time.
Surely, I will fail.
These choruses will not reduce stress–only increase them. What we need to do instead is change the channel in our heads to play a different song. Instead of telling yourself, “I’m no good at this” you might tell yourself “The boss wouldn’t give me this job if she didn’t think I could do it” or “I mastered that other difficult program, I will conquer this task too.”
As Christians, we can take this one step further and use the power of Scripture to compose our truth songs. When the brain starts singing the tune “I’m no good at this” you can counter with:
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13 NKJV). While we may need to do something difficult, God promises to be with us and give us what we need to accomplish the task.
It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure (Psalm 18:32 NIV). When we need stress relief, we go to the Father who promises strength for our tired souls and security in Him even in this uncertain world.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:27 ESV). Yes, we may be stressed out, but Jesus tells us to chase that stress away because He can give us peace. Peace that doesn’t depend on everything going just as planned, but peace in Him no matter the circumstances we find ourselves in.
If people’s thinking is controlled by the sinful self, there is death. But if their thinking is controlled by the Spirit, there is life and peace. (Romans 8:6 NCV). If we ask the Holy Spirit to transform our thoughts, He can change our thinking from worry and anxiety to life and peace.
Use the power of Scripture to combat stress!
Next step: Which Scripture will help you most in managing your stress? Somehow make it visible today: write it on a card to carry with you, scribble it on a sticky note to post on your bathroom mirror, make it your screen saver on your phone. Remind yourself that although we may not be able to change our stressful circumstances, we can change how we think about them.