The trials of the day make it impossible to understand God's will and direction (Eph 5:17). In fact, God seems to have entirely deserted you (Job 23:1-10). The sense of His presence is a thing of the past and you can't remember the last time there was something for which to thank God (Eph 5:20). The bad influences of life are much greater than the influence of God's Spirit, making you feel both intellectually and physically weak while your thoughts are depressed and focused on what may go wrong (Eph 5:16-19).

Any one of us can remember a time when one of the previous statements described our state of mind. At some point in time, we all have experienced each of these feelings. Still, when these are all experienced simultaneously, it is a sign of stress affecting one's life -- stress that needs to be addressed.

The human soul can only handle a limited amount of stress. When this limit is reached, in addition to the previously mentioned conditions, the soul begins to shutdown and "I don't care" attitudes are seen. This stress induced attitude often leads to sin, and has done so in more than one Christian's life.

Unfortunately, the idea of addressing a stress induced state of mind seems to be greatly avoided within the church. Too often, those who need to understand how to cope with life are only told they need "more faith" and must simply increase their Bible reading or prayer. While this is certainly the case in some instances, it fails to adequately equip most people to handle the day to day stress of life that brought on their mind set.

The Bible's counsel on the "non-spiritual" issue of stress management is either overlooked or ignored. Do we stop to consider that people long ago also dealt with stress? Why then shouldn't the Bible tell us how to manage stress? The benefit of the Bible's counsel is only as affective as our obedience. Each one of us must decide of our own volition to follow the biblical road to successful stress management. It will never occur accidentally.

By most people's account, the days in which we live are much more stressful than past years. The stressful day in which we live is a sign of the time. We are told that "in the last days perilous times will come" (2 Tim 3:1). In the Greek, the word perilous means "reducing the strength" or "difficult." The days in which we live certainly are "reducing the strength," but the Bible also tells us how to live in these stressful days.

The first step is to immediately stop your involvement with all unnecessary "busyness" and evaluate what is truly necessary (2 Tim 2:3-4). Get a true picture of what's really important in your life. The more stress you're enduring, the greater the number of things that must be removed. The remaining work and responsibilities must then be committed to God (2 Tim 1:14, Pro 16:3).

Once the sources of stress have been reduced, the way you think must change. The cyclical computive reasoning about your problems can and must stop (2 Cor 10:5). Yes, you can decide to stop being fixated on that problem whenever you choose. God has given you a spirit of power to take control of yourself; His love casts out your fear and He gives you a self-controlled mind to take your thoughts captive.

Then be certain you are serving God with a clear conscience (2 Tim 1:3), but you must be careful not to earnestly think about yourself or be overly interested in yourself (Rom 12:3). The Holy Spirit's conviction is instantaneous. If you're not instantly convicted of sin, then sin is not the issue. Immediately stop examining yourself before you become more introspective, a cause of much depression.

Listen to worship music and allow your soul to be influenced by the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18). The Bible further instructs you to sing songs to yourself and speak verses of Scripture and God's promises to yourself (Eph 5:19). Suggested verses: Psa 4:8, Psa 55:22, Psa 119:165, Pro 16:3, Isa 26:3, Isa 41:10, Luke 21:34, John 14:1, John 14:27, Rom 8:6, Heb 13:5, 1 Pet 5:6-7, Phil 4:4-8.

Begin to renovate your mind through intense repetition of the things that are good, acceptable, lovely and of good report (Rom 12:2, Phil 4:8). Remind yourself of the facts and focus on the facts, not on speculation or "what if..." (2 Tim 1:5). Ask yourself, "What's the worst that could happen?" See, it's not really as bad as you have told yourself. Think of things for which you can thank God (Eph 5:20). You're still breathing aren't you? You're not told to thank God for your crises, just to thank God in your crises.

The signs of successful stress management will begin as you think differently. It then becomes easier to receive God's direction and feel His presence. God will once again feel bigger than any problem and thoughts of Him will be able to comfort your soul (Psa 94:19). With mental discipline you will once again be able to see the facts and ignore emotional speculation about your life that caused "ups and downs" in your thoughts (Pro 16:3).

When stressful situations do arise, and they will, you'll be able to maintain a clear self-controlled mind without being fear-controlled. Successful stress management will result in your continual introspective thoughts being replaced with thoughts of God and those around you. Any thoughts of yourself that you do have will not have the negative influence they once did (Rom 12:3). Your perception on your life will be based on factual reality, not stress, and you will not become like others in the same stressful situation.

The result of managing your stress and thinking differently will transform you into a person of action toward your goal and purpose, not a person of reaction to problems. Many people would like their lives transformed but few are willing to engage in the required mental discipline to renew their minds (Rom 12:2). But a transformed life comes by no other way than renewing our mind. YOU can do it!

Copyright © 1999 Eternal Hope Ministries, Inc., P.O. Box 466, Ellerslie, MD 21529. www.ehope.com. Not-for-profit use and/or reproduction of this material is encouraged, providing attribution is given and all copies are in its entirety.