Articles on stress and how to cope with it have proliferated like weeds in an unkempt garden. Pick up your favorite magazine and you are confronted with headlines in bold type which scream, "You can put stress to rest in your life!"

I've read a lot of them. Most of these articles leave you feeling hollow or even frustrated. Like a mother's kiss on a child's skinned knee, they may help for a short time, but the uplift is temporary and more like a desensitizer than a real cure.

It seems to me that the solutions offered are merely many variations of three basic themes:

1) Alter or change your perception of a stressful situation

This helps you put the situation which bothers you into perspective and is an advice which may indeed be profitable.

2) Practice relaxation techniques

Visualize a beautiful tropical retreat with you lying comfortably in a hammock hanging between two coconut trees. You are surrounded by lovely flowers, and sweetly singing birds. Focus on that. Or try listening to soothing music. Discover deep breathing. A variety of visual stimuli all fit into this category. Another variation is to get exercise - jog, swim, bicycle, walk, do aerobics, and so forth.

3) Take medications for your problem

Tranquilizers may either work on the central nervous system or allow tense muscles to relax, which may decrease the level of stress.

All of the above may be helpful, but is there more than this? Does the child of God who takes seriously the instruction of Scripture have the tools with which he can cope with stress? Or are we very much on our own when it comes to coping with stressful situations and events? I am convinced that we do have the tools. Let's look at some of these great resources which are available.

Guideline One: Get God's Perspective

To do this you may need to back off from the stressful situation and put both it and God in perspective. We are often so close to whatever is creating stress that we see neither God nor the situation in its true perspective. We are so close to the trees we can't see the forest. Stress seems to shut God out from our lives.

Go out and look at the stars on a dark night and realize that the closest star is Alpha Centauri, 26 trillion miles away. Light from that star, traveling at the speed of 186,400 miles per second, still takes 4.5 years to reach us.

Look at the magnificent galaxies across the heavens. Tell yourself that before God ever created the first star and put it in the sky, He knew about the stressful situation which confronts you right now.

When tomorrow comes, God will be there to welcome you. Nothing takes Him by surprise.

A line in the autoexec bat of my computer reads, "Remember, this too shall pass…." a reminder that helps me put things in their proper perspective.

Quite often we forget that much of what is so important today will be of little significance ten years, or ever perhaps, ten days from now. We exhaust a hundred dollars of adrenaline on ten-cent events and people. It's overkill, like shooting a fly with a .45, when a gentle swat with a fly swatter would do the trick.

A sign reads - Rules for Stress:

1) Don't sweat the small stuff (Don't worry about the unimportant things in life)

2) It's all small stuff (They're all unimportant things, they're not worth worrying about)

The late Vance Havner put it so practically when he quipped, "Remember, any bulldog can whip a skunk (a nasty little animal found in North America that sprays a very bad smelling odor on his enemies), but it just ain't worth it."

Sure, you can give vent to your feelings in a stressful situation: You can fight back. You can shout at people. You can file a grievance. You can let your temper flare. But does it really matter that much?

When you are God's child, you can look at things from God's view point. God's perspective views the circumstances in a different light. The Bible says that nothing happens to His children as a matter of chance or fate.

Paul wrote, "In Him (Christ) we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will…" (Esphesians 1:11). And to this great truth add the comfort of Romans 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who live Him, who have been called according to His purpose."

The events which have created stress are tools in the hands of God. The circumstances which appear so hostile may be allowed by a loving God because He wants to accomplish something lasting and worthwhile in our lives, something which would never happen apart from your being in the pressure cooker.

One more thing must be said at this point. There are times when this point of view must be taken by faith. You may not sense what God is doing in your life while you are in a hostile situation, but you have to tell your doubts to get off, then hold on to the truth. You can't see the end of a stressful situation, only God can. If you are convinced that God is a good God, you can hold on and trust Him, which brings us to the next step.

Guideline Two: Let Your Relationship with God be an Anchor which Holds You Steady in the Time of Storm

The writer of Hebrews in the New Testament says that our faith is "an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Hebrews 6:19). The ship at sea is at the mercy of the ebb and flow of the tides - much as an individual who has no assurance that there is more to life than what he sees, feeling completely at the mercy of circumstances.

When you trust the Lord to bring order out of the chaos which brings stress, you will feel the ebb and flow of the tide, yet you will drift and not drown. God never even suggested that sufficient faith would eliminate stress in our lives.

God said, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze" (Isaiah 43:2). Notice that God never said, "If you should happen to go through the waters, fire, or flood," He said you would go through them. Jesus was just as emphatic in sayining, "In the world, you will have trouble;" but the promise of His presence in times of stress becomes an anchor which gives strength to face the reality of life.

When you were a kid, did you ever exchange angry works with rowdy kids in your neighborhood? Perhaps standing on your side of the street, you hollered, "My daddy can beat you your daddy!" and ran for home.

Why not try that in relationship to the stressful event which has robbed you of peace of mind? Do you really believe that your heavenly Father is Sovereign Lord and God of the Universe? That He is stronger than the forces of evil which have perhaps brought stress to your life? Why not hurl those words at the circumstances, then head home, get on your knees, and remind God that you are His child, and that He promised to never leave or forsake you (See Hebrews 13:5 and Matthew 28:20)

An acquaintance of mine will put his feet on his desk and say, "So what if they fire me. They can't take my family, they can't take away my wife, or my children. All they can take is my paycheck, and I'll trust God for my needs as Scripture says I can, so I'm not going to worry."

Guideline Three: Stop Bearing Your Load and God's As Well

Worry says in effect : "God you aren't big enough to handle this situation, so I had better figure out what I'm going to do!" Do you really think that God went back to Heaven, closed the door, and left you to fend for yourself? No, but realize that there are times when you have to say, "Lord, I can't handle this. It's bigger than I am. There is absolutely nothing that I can do about it so You take over!"

Nothing creates greater frustration than not being able to solve our own problems. Problem solvers by nature, we want to work out our own solution. But often, life presents us with circumstances which we cannot change - an illness, a difficult situation with your boss, a young adult who seems to be making a decision he will later regret.

Peter said, "Cast all you anxiety on Him because He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7), and the psalmist said, "Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you" (Psalm 55:22).

We are much like the man Hanna Whitall Smith describes in her book, The Secret of a Happy Christian Life. This man was walking down the road with a heavy load on his back. A farmer driving an empty wagon pulled over and invited the burdened man to climb aboard for a lift to the nearby village.

The man climbed aboard the wagon, still bearing his burden. The driver of the wagon suggested he should put his burden down, but the fellow replied that it would be taking advantage of the driver to expect him to bear both him and his burden.

Ludicrous, right? About as foolish as asking God to meet us and give us direction as to what to do about a stressful situation, then struggle as if there were no God who is a loving Father.

Guideline Four: Apply Scriptural Principles to the Situation Creating Your Stress

In times of real stress we often feel that God went back to heaven, closed the door, and left us to solve our problems on our own. Nothing is further from the truth.

At times (though certainly not at all times), we have been responsible for some of our difficulty by ignoring the direction God has for our lives. The end result of this is stress.

If our stress is the result of conflict with someone - either you have a gripe with somebody or someone has something against you - you can probably meet that stress by taking courage and confronting the individual (See Matthew 18:15-19).

Confrontation (stressful as it may seem initially) can be positive, and eventually eliminate much of the turmoil you have lived with in the past.

The Bible catalogues affairs, dishonesty, deceit, and a host of other practices as sin. They create stress - both in the life of the individual who practices them, and in the lives of those who are part of his or her family. God's Word directs us to confess these sins to Him, then as He forgives us, we recover from stress.

In addition to some of the specifics there are a lot of common sense admonitions in the New Testament which, if you follow them will relieve stress.

James 4:17 says, "Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin" (KJV). Pretty blunt? Right! How to regulate the stress in our lives is basically common sense.

Guideline Five: Decide What Your Physical and Emotional Load Limits Are

No two individuals have the same physical strength. One hunk of a may exercise with a three hundred pounds weight while another can't handle fifty pounds. One just happens to be born with a physique the other doesn't have.

Likewise, some individuals have an amazing resiliency. They can cope with vast amounts of stress and handle it quite well. Others can handle very little.

The story is told of a man walking down a road in a little barrio. As he strolled along, he saw a lady sitting in a rocking chair under the shade of a tree in front of her little nipa house. He asked her, "Lola, do you ever worry!"
"No!"
"How do you feel when times are being difficult?"
"Oh, just fine!"
"But how do you manage to stay on top of the situation as well as you do?"
She explained, "When I sees a worry coming down the road, I just sits down, and when it sits down, I lies down. And when it lies down, I just goes to sleep!"

Try that when your phone rings, or when your boss asks you to work overtime.

No two individuals have the same capacity for handling stress. One is not better than the other; they simply came from the drawing board of heaven with different stress resistant capabilities. Spirituality is not the issue, but emotional strength is.

Samual Plimsoll (1824-1898) convinced the British Parliament to enact legislation which required a line to be placed on every British ship. Cargo could be loaded only to the point when the "Plimsoll" line (as it came to be known) met the water line. Loading a ship beyond that point, the practice of greedy ship owners, jeopardized the lives of the sailors as the ship was tossed by an angry storm. No wonder, this gentleman was known as the sailor's friend.

You aren't born with a Plimsoll line on your ribs that tells you when you are overloaded. Your boss isn't going to decide when you've had enough. Your husband or wife can't say when. Your doctor can't. You are the only one in all the world who can say, "Enough!"

Learning to say "No" is one of the most difficult things we have to do. Why? We want to please people. We want people to lime us, so we often end up saying, "Yes," when we would like to say "No," we just don't have the courage to do it.

If you're among those I've just described, you can do what I have to do on occasion. Say, "I'd like to say yes, but it's impossible. I've made a previous commitment." (That previous commitment may be to your wife, or yourself, a commitment to keep your sanity.)

Guideline Six: Budget Stress by Managing Your Time

There is much inequality in life! Whoever said life is fair? One person can eat anything he wants. The other just walks by a restaurant and smells the delicious aroma of baking bread and gains weight.

But when it comes to time, gifted or neglected, rich or poor, young or old, in bonds or free, every person has exactly the same amount of this quantity called time; 168 hours to the week, 60 minutes to the hour.

Much of our everyday stress - though certainly not all - is the result of poor time management. We procrastinate. We put off doing the necessary. The tyranny of the urgent saps our hours, and what we really need to accomplish never gets done.

You need some simple help in scheduling. What I'm about to describe will work, provided you work at it.

Take a blank sheet of paper, and divide it into three columns which you label, "Must do," "Should do," "Can do." Then, under the "Must do" heading make a list of everything that has to be done, without fail, this week. Then, number the items, listing the most important one first, the next important as number two and so forth.

In the list "Should do" items, put tasks of secondary importance, perhaps items that need to be done next week but aren't really urgent or pressing.

The "Can do" list includes items which will eventually need your attention, and as time passes those items may move right to left as they gain importance.

Now, go to work on that number one item on your "Must do" list. Though you are tempted to avoid that phone call because you don't especially want to talk to that person, don't put it off. Do the most important one first, and don't go on to the next item until you have finished that task.

Does it work? You will be amazed how much stress you can eliminate by doing the most important task first, and then prioritizing your pressing tasks.

Guideline Seven: Be Filled with the Spirit

Without going into a long theological discourse, let me give you a picture which will help you see this point. First, understand that when you became a believer in Jesus Christ; God's Holy Spirit came to indwell your heart and life (Romans 8:9).

Paul also gave us a command. A straightforward admonition to "be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18). At the rist of oversimplification, this translates: Let Jesus Christ be Lord of your life. Ask Him to take control, guiding you, drawing from Him the resources of grace and strength which you lack, and trusting Him to work His will in your life, as you do your part by following His will which is revealed in Scripture. Wow! All of that. Oswald Chambers put in three words: "Let God engineer!" In other words, you willingly invite Him to take control of your life.

One of the words Scripture uses for a filling is that of taking a drinking glass or cup and filling if from a pitcher.

Writing to the Corinthians, Paul used the picture of a clay vessel (nothing terribly strong in its ability to withstand stress), as an illustration of what is to be filled with the Spirit of God.

Now, picture an ordinary clay pitcher or vessel. Drop it and it breaks. Unfired, it has a reasonable life span - but not forever.

Paul says, "We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all - surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed" (2 Corinthians 4:7-9).

That's a picture three vessels or vases: One made of clay, another made of marble (stronger), and one made of metal. Obviously, their ability to withstand stress is in increasing order. Now, in your mind's eye, picture a strong hand within the weaker ones, providing support and giving each the same ability to withstand pressure from without. Are you getting the picture?

When I was a boy, I remember visiting Van Briggle Pottery near my home. I watched with interest as the old potter took a lump of clay, kneaded it with his hand, molding and shaping the lump. Then he put it on the potter's wheel, working the treadle with his foot.

From this amorphous lump of clay, slowly the shape of a vessel began to emerge. Gradually the potter placed one hand within the vessel, and with the other hand began to apply pressure without. Eventually a beautiful vessel w s created.

So it is with our lives.

There is the hand of God within you which keeps you from collapsing from the pressure and stress from without. The same strong hand insures that no greater pressure be applied than you can handle.

Is that to suggest then that there is no limit to the stress and pressure we can withstand? No, not for a moment. But we can expect that in His will, utilizing the wisdom and strength that He gives, we can rise to the occasion and draw upon His grace for what we lack. His strength within is more than equal to the stress without.