By Channing King
Stress is the real deal. Jesus, David, Solomon and other biblical characters had stress. It’s something we can’t avoid. We have to learn how to handle physical, chemical and emotional stresses so we can be healthy. I want to teach some principles I have learned from Dr. Ben Lerner, author of the book “Body by God.”
The first principle to remember is that stress affects your body. Whether your stress is self inflicted or the result of something external, it can greatly reduce your lifespan. The effect it has on posture, the nervous system, organs and body chemistry has been studied and is well-documented. I have heard it said that sometimes it is not what we eat that hurts us, rather it is what stress we have allowed to eat at us that hurts us.
Can stress be programmed? I think that experiences in your life can really affect your stress load. Stress can be set into place by your history, the culture you have lived in, your self-esteem and the goals you have set. You can actually relate your experiences to that of a computer that has downloaded negative software. The computer’s ability to function at optimum level is hindered, and in order to fix the problem, the negative software must be deleted. The same is true for you
. If you want to function optimally, you must delete the negative software in your life — the negative thoughts, the stressful situations, stressful people, procrastination, etc. I pray you will be able to do that. You must realize that stress in your life tends to build up. Any past, present or future stress can be dealt with when you have healthy software to download to help the problem. My favorite software is God’s word.
In order to get started on this problem called stress, let me give you some advice. Don’t try to manage stress. It’s hard to. Just like it’s easier to manage health than disease or manage your money rather than poverty, it’s easier to manage peace than stress. Get more peace in your life. The Bible says to seek peace and pursue it. Make peace a part of your life. This will really help your stress.
Let me end this series with 10 instructions for peace by God. Just like there are 10 commandments, there are 10 instructions for peace in your life. I am not perfect at all these, but they really do help bring a tremendous amount of peace in your life if you practice them. They are: Thou shalt be appearanceless, thou shalt be wantless, thou shalt be acceptanceless, thou shalt be resultless, thou shalt be prideless, thou shalt be timeless, thou shalt be hateless, thou shalt be fearless, thou shalt be faithful, thou shalt be hopeful.
When you are stressed, it’s usually because there are one of these 10 principles that you are not living out.