The following article was published in the 2021 March-May Issue #55 of the Crossroads Women's Ministry Newsletter. A short series of follow-up articles on the subject of a Christian's response to stress will be launching this week.
I recently had a stress epiphany. If we define stress as “When demand exceeds capacity,” then I think we can easily see why the last 12 months have brought us to unprecedented levels of chronic stress!
When we are stressed, our brains ask three questions in this
order: “Am I safe?” “Am I loved?” and “What do I do now?” We need to answer the
first two questions to alleviate involuntary responses to stress, which (if
chronic) can lead to big problems—everything from physical manifestations to
extreme forms of anxiety or depression. Once those first two questions are
answered, we can consciously decide on the third—“What do I do now?”
In a stress mastery course I took, they provided this
practical stress response system: 1) Breathe. 2) Feel. 3) Focus. When you
breathe intentionally (say, at a rate of 5 seconds in, 5 seconds out) you
control your heart rate, informing your brain that you are safe. When you guide
your feelings to gratitude, you inform your brain that you are loved. When you
focus, you can decide what energy you need to expend in this moment. What is
the next step? This logical function can kick in and instead of reacting
to the stress, you respond to it.
I was struck at the similarity to this
system and the commands we have in Scripture as to how to deal with worry. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in
everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made
known to God.” (Philippians 4:6 NASB) We are to pray and still ourselves before
the Lord (breathe!) and direct that question—plead—to Him. “Lord, am I
safe in you?” Then, with thanksgiving (feel gratitude!), we answer the
question, “Lord, am I loved?” Finally, we are to make our requests known to
God—asking Him, “Lord, what do I do now?”
God
literally designed our brains to handle worries and stress in the way He
prescribed! When we still ourselves before the Lord (Habakkuk 2:20, Psalm
46:10, Micah 7:7, etc.), give Him thanks in every situation (Ephesians 5:20, I
Thessalonians 5:18, etc.), then we can get down to the business of taking those
thoughts captive and responding (not reacting) in obedience and faith,
demolishing “Every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God,
and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (II
Corinthians 10:5 NIV)
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