Stress - the curse of the 90's

Stress - an almost accepted word in the Christian community when maybe we should consider this word like a four letter one and avoid it!  Thanx to the 1990's, stress has changed from a noun to a verb.  No longer is stress the result of our response to the pressures of life, stress is a state of being verb.  "I am stressed out" should be feedback to the Christian that they are not responding to pressure in a Godly fashion.

Life is full of pressures and many of these we are thankful for.  If you are sitting while reading this, gravity is putting pressure on your butt causing it some discomfort and keeping you in one place.  We need and want this type of pressure.  We need/want pressure in our cardiovascular system and many more examples of positive pressure.  These pressures result in beneficial responses.

As the above indicates, pressure can and does result in good things for us.  However, as Christians, other pressures in life should not bring us to a point of being "stressed out". Change, our economy, family, $, relationships, jobs - these are all pressure inducers in our lives but should not be considered automatically as stress.  I believe this is far more than mere semantics.  Pressure can be responded to by stress accompanied by the many negative things stress does to our bodies and spirits.  BUT it does not have to be this way.

Jesus says to us that one of the gifts he brings to us Christ followers is peace.  'Peace I give to you, not as the world gives.'  Peace and being stressed can be viewed as polar opposites.  What could be some of the results to the above mentioned pressures instead of stress.  How can we as Christians be 'stress free'?

First, I believe we have to not accept stress in our lives and when se feel it/say it, we should be aware that his is not God's plan A for our lives.  Knowing that 'being stressed out' is not the answer, what is?  Various practical responses to pressure would include things like re-prioritizing, learning how to say no, removing the busy clutter from our lives, focusing on the most important things first and giving what we have left over to the rest of our many activities, taking a vacation, increasing our sleep, and so many more.

However, as a Christ follower, the initial response to these pressures is to bring the situation to the Father.  We need to totally trust in God's plan for our lives and realize how much He loves us.  If we really knew how much He loves us, would we think the way we do?  Using Peter's words, we should truly cast/throw/eliminate our cares to Him who knows us better than we know ourselves and loves us even though he does know ALL about us.  We can do some of the other practical responses, but Christ followers should always try to respond to pressure by first bringing the cause of that pressure to our 'Abba Father' and let His peace permeate our lives.  God WILL use whatever is happening in our lives for our ultimate good and His purposes for our lives.  Is there a better way to live than to fulfill our creator's purposes for us even if those purposes seem lost in our present situation?  Thank God in the middle of your pressures and know He WILL act in your life.

There is a lot more to this than these simple words, however, a major beginning point would be to begin to rid the word 'stress' for our vocabulary and when it rears its ugly head, fight it with everything you have starting with turning over your situation to the One who gave His life to prove how much He loves us!