How to overcome stress – 4 keys to living stress free
4 Keys to Choosing a Stress Free Life
How to overcome stress? We all face stressful situations in life, but those situations don’t have to create stress and anxiety in your life. You can beat stress. You can live a stress free life in the midst of a stress filled world. The key to knowing how to overcome stress is found in how you respond to those stressful situations. It is extremely important to know how to properly respond so you don’t become stressed. It’s not God’s desire for you to live a life burdened and stressed out. The Lord wants you to live in peace. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27) As a follower of Christ you can live stress free in this stress filled world. The question becomes. How? How do you live stress free?
How to Overcome Stress –
When ever I ask a believer that question, the standard response goes something like, “Just trust God more and you’ll never deal with stress again.” If it were only that easy. It is true we need to put our trust in the Lord, because only He is able to provide the ability to truly live a stress free life. However, there are steps you need to take to experience that stress free life as you trust in Him.
No matter what you do you can’t avoid stressful situations, they are inevitable in life. However, you get to choose how you respond to those situations. How you respond will determine whether those situations produce stress in you or not. So, how do you respond when faced with a stressful situation? Do you get angry or begin to worry or become fearful? Does your imagination begin to go wild and anxiety build in you? You need to realize how your respond is your choice. You have the power to choose how you are going to deal with every situation that confronts you. The question becomes how do you choose to respond in a way that keeps you at peace?
4 Key Choices to Overcome Stress
The following are four key choices you need to be making in order to stay stress free. Making these 4 choices positions you to be able to respond to the stressful situations in the right way and be at peace. They are how to overcome stress;
1. Choose to Come to Jesus. Don’t try to go it alone. Don’t wait until you’re totally stressed out. Realize you need the Lord’s help every day and in every situation and come to Him. Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29) When you come to Jesus He provides the help you need to live a stress free life. The choice is yours.
2. Choose to Cast Your Cares on the Lord. Stress is a result of the accumulation of several situations. Seldom do we get stressed out over just one thing. We tend to carry the cares of life and the world until some little thing becomes the straw that breaks the camels back and we become all stressed out. Instead of allowing things to pile up learn to daily cast those things on the Lord. “Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.” 1Peter 5:7 AMP) The Lord cares about you and every little situation in your life. Make the choice to allow Him to be in the process. Choose to cast your cares on the Lord each day.
3. Choose to Delight in the Lord. You need time alone with God. Take time each day to simply delight in His presence. In Matthew 14:23 it says Jesus, “went up into a mountain apart to pray” It’s been said if we don’t come APART to pray we will come APART. If Jesus took time alone it stands to reason we need time alone with the Lord. It is in those times we receive strength, wisdom, grace, and direction for our life. “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. (Psalm 37:4) It is your choice.
4. Choose to Rejoice. Joy has power over stress. It is a proven antidote to stress. Proverbs 17:22 tells us, “A merry heart does good, like medicine”. Nothing works faster or better. Choosing to laugh in the midst of a trying situation will bring peace to your mind and soul. “Rejoice and again I say rejoice” (Philippians 4:4) Joy is a choice it is not a feeling. Choose to rejoice.
How to overcome stress? How do you live a stress free life? It begins by realizing God is with you, that He is faithful, and you can put your trust in Him. Then make theses four choices every day. You and God can do anything together. He will never leave you or forsake you. He will be with you always, even to the end of the age. If God be for us, then who can be against us. You can live stress free in a stress-filled world!
(here is a link to additional techniques and ways to deal with stress at “Skills You Need to Know” – click here.)
