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PROGRAM D-7289
Stress is a hot topic these days, because most of us have much more of it in our lives than we should. The Bible has answers for our stress problems; I’d like to share a few more biblical stress reducing ideas with you.
Idea number eight: Talk to yourself. Now, this will only help reduce your stress if you say the right things to yourself. All of us talk to ourselves, whether we admit it or not, but I’ve discovered that many times we say all the wrong things, and we pour back into our minds so much negative input, that our stress levels go up.
If you’ll read the Psalms, you’ll see that David talked to himself. Often he said, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Can’t you see this great man of God saying to himself, “Now, David, stop your whining and complaining and stop worrying about everything. Trust in God and praise him.”
It was his way of regaining his perspective. I have to talk to myself quite often in order to keep my perspective. Here’s one of the things I say to myself to help regain my perspective and reduce my stress:
What difference will this make in 24 hours? I find that about 90% of what’s bugging me right now won’t make any difference tomorrow, so I get my perspective back and stop stewing over something that is truly insignificant. If 24 hours doesn’t work, move it out to a week, or a month, and if all else fails, try eternity. What difference will this make in eternity? You’ll find not too much gets past the 24 hour time frame.
If you’ll start watching what you say to yourself, and force yourself to say the right things, you will see an immense reduction in your stress levels. That’s another reason that scripture memorization is so helpful. There’s nothing better than God’s Word poured into our minds to help us cope with stress, and if you have some verses memorized, you can recite God’s Word to yourself.