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PROGRAM W-1803 – Part I
Nobody has a corner on stress; we’ve all caught this disease in one form or another at some stage of our lives. I think everyone can relate to this topic. If there’s anyone who doesn’t struggle with stress, I’d love to hear from you. I admit that it’s one of my major battles—to keep the stress down to acceptable levels.
Let me ask you this: Do you think Christians should be able to deal with stress better than non-believers? I really think we should, because we have the power of the Holy Spirit within us to enable us to cope better. Furthermore, the Bible is full of very good advice on dealing with stress.
My next question is this: Do Christians cope with stress better than non-believers? “Sometimes yes, sometimes no” is probably the most accurate answer. When we don’t, it’s because we are not applying some very practical principles from the Bible.
You see, the Bible is not outdated. Long before we recognized stress as a major problem, God’s Word had answers for us. I’d like to share some of those stress reduction ideas right from the Word of God.
- Sing a favorite song.
The Bible is full of admonitions for us to sing. Ephesians 5:19 tells us to “[speak] to one another with psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord. . .” I promise you, if you’ll start to sing a good Christian song, your stress will go down.
We’re often in rush mode—rushing to get to work on time, rushing to get our shopping done, rushing to meet a deadline. I sometimes think “rush” is my middle name! While you’re rushing, sing to yourself. Instead of “whistle while you work,” our motto should be “Sing while you rush!” We can’t always control the rush, but we can do things while we’re rushing to control the stress. This would be a whole lot better than murmuring and fretting while you’re rushing, don’t you think? All the negative “rush talk” just adds more stress to your day.
So, when you’re walking from one end of the office to the other, driving in your car, or rushing around shopping, just hum or sing to yourself. Of course, there are many times we can’t sing out loud, but we can sing in our hearts even when we can’t sing with our lips. This is a wonderful, biblical stress reducer.
- Slow down; be still.
David wrote “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him” (Psalm 37:7). This is not easy to do in our culture, is it? Waiting is a bad word for most of us. Just slowing down—not easy to do!
Tell the truth, now: Do you stand in front of your microwave oven and say, “Come on, hurry up!”? I know you talk to your computer, like I do, because it just doesn’t compute fast enough to suit you. In a society that specializes in fast food, fast talk, fast information—everything fast—a society that brags about our speed, we have to fight like crazy to learn to be still.
How do we learn to be still? We can begin by intentionally teaching ourselves to slow down and not do everything quickly. I find that I do things quickly when there is no need to. So I try to talk to myself and say, “You’re not in a contest, Mary; there is no need to walk so fast or stay so busy. Be still!”
- Take quiet time for yourself with the Lord each day.
I was reading an article in a secular magazine on stress reduction, and it listed a daily quiet time as one important way to reduce stress. Let me tell you—it is! I’ve heard people discard the idea that Christians need to establish a daily time with God, saying that it tends to be legalistic and confining. Then here comes a totally non-Christian authority on stress, recommending quiet time each day! Interesting, I think.
While I certainly don’t see a daily quiet time as a legalistic ritual to which I’m duty-bound, I do see it as a necessary discipline which makes a tremendous difference in my life and in my stress levels. The days I don’t have that quiet time—and there certainly are some of those days—I’m far more stressed out than when I take the time to start my day with just me and Jesus.
Let me ask you this: Do you take quiet time each day to be still before the Lord? If you find yourself getting out of bed at the very last minute and making mad dashes every morning, I can guarantee you that your stress is going up because of that lack of a quiet start to your day.
Now I recognize that at certain times in our lives, quiet times for ourselves are very hard to come by. Mothers of young babies and children have unique demands, and it’s not so easy to free up a quiet period undisturbed. But I always think of Suzanne Wesley—the mother of over a dozen kids, including Charles and John Wesley—who found time each day to sit in her rocker, pull her apron over her head, and spend time alone with the Lord. Her children knew not to disturb mother then! I doubt it was any easier for her to do than it is for working moms today.
If you’re a mom of young children, do they know that you have quiet time each day with the Lord, and they should not disturb you then? You will teach your children more by your example than any other way. They should know that Mom places a high priority on quiet time with the Lord.
You know the famous verse in Isaiah 40 which teaches us this principle: “Those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will moutn up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary” (Isaiah 40:31, NASB).
If you’re soaring like eagles, you won’t be stressed out. But you have to wait on the Lord in those quiet moments in order to soar with new strength, to run and not be tired, and to walk and not be weary.
- Laugh a lot.
Find every opportunity possible in your day to simply laugh! Laughter is a great way to deal with stress. In Proverbs we read that a cheerful heart is good medicine, and the cheerful heart has a continual feast. Just notice the people around you: Those who are cheerful and laugh a lot aren’t usually too tense or stressed out. But the person who rarely smiles or laughs is living in stress-city and everyone knows it.
Funny stories, clean jokes, good fun—my, how we need more laughter in our lives! Do you laugh enough? Do you look for the humor in life? Do you see the funny little things that happen all day long?
One of the best gifts my father gave to our family was the gift of laughter. He laughed a lot, made jokes, had fun, and when we got together we usually laughed ’til the tears started to come—over the silliest things, but who cares?! We laughed a lot. As a result, our family still laughs a lot. It is an inheritance that he gave to us.
What about your family? Do you keep things light enough, or are you always focusing on the problems or the issues? If you’ll intentionally create times of fun and laughter, it will be a wonderful bonding for your family and a great release of stress.
Tension and stress are immediately released when we laugh. We’re also told to rejoice with others when they are rejoicing and, in that way, we double their joy and partake of it, as well. Lots of laughter is good biblical medicine for stress.
- Simplify your life; get rid of “stuff.”
Lately I’ve been trying to stay focused on getting rid of things, not buying more. It is so easy to be a consumer—after all, our culture promotes it. Buy, buy, buy—and pretty soon your life is chocked full of stuff. Then you have to spend time keeping it clean and safe and, before you know it, you don’t own your stuff; it owns you.
Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive. Honestly, this is the truth. I want to encourage you to start giving things away. When you start to buy something new, stop and ask yourself, “Do I really need this? Can I live without it?” I am totally convinced that much of our stress is related to our stuff—getting it, keeping it, cleaning it, etc.
We pay a price when we invest so much in our things that we have to worry about them. Jesus told us not to lay up our treasures on earth where moth and rust corrupt; that’s good stress-reduction advice. Maybe you’ve been accumulating too much stuff, trying to get the best of everything, and you’ve never stopped to think how stressful that is to you. Why don’t you get rid of some of it and reduce your stress?