Start with Gratitude: How Do Christians Deal With Stress?
5 Healthy Ways to Deal With Stress as a Believer
1. Recognize the Problem.
2. Give Yourself a Break and Get Help.
3. Turn to God in Prayer
4. Meditate on the Word of God
5. Spend Time Giving Thanks and Praise
Everyone deals with stress at some point, and Christians are not immune to the pressures and pitfalls of life.
Stress tends to hit us when we’re overtired, when we’re sick, and when we’re outside of our safe and familiar environment. When we’ve taken on too many responsibilities, during times of grief and tragedy, when our circumstances spin out of control, we feel stressed. And when our basic needs are not being met, we feel threatened and anxious.
Most Christians share the belief that God is sovereign and in control of our lives. We believe he has given us everything we need for living. So, when stress dominates our lives, somewhere along the way we have lost our ability to trust in God. That’s not meant to imply that a stress-free existence in Christ is easy to obtain. Far from it.
Maybe you’ve heard these words from another Christian in one of your moments of stress: “What you need to do, bro, is just trust God more.”
If only it were that easy.
Stress and anxiety for a Christian can take on many different shapes and forms. It can be as simple and subtle as slowly backsliding away from God or as debilitating as a full-blown panic attack. Regardless, stress will wear us down physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We need to be armed with a plan for dealing with it.