Christian Stress Management

What makes Christian stress management unique among all the approaches to dealing with stress?

I firmly believe that we as children of God have a special advantage when it comes to managing stress. You see, we serve the very One Who created the world and knows us inside and out.

We have every good reason in the world to tap into that relationship... and have lives of peace, joy and fulfillment.

How can the petty stressors of life even dare to stand in our way? We have God on our side!

It's true... we come under the same sources of stress that everyone else faces. We experience hard times and become overwhelmed too, right?

So what is different about Christian stress management?

The difference is this...

When our lives become stressful, our Creator, King and Savior is there to help us carry the load. We don't have to do it by ourselves! We have a powerful tool at hand in the beautiful cycle of belief, trust and obedience.

God also sent us a Comforter (Holy Spirit) to teach us and remind us of things. When our hearts are ready to hear His voice, Holy Spirit speaks through the noise of life and brings us the "peace that passes understanding."

Besides divine intervention, we also have an amazing family that God provides for us... our brothers and sisters in Christ. We can learn a lot from one another! I learn from the people in my life every day. My family, my church family and people with whom I interact on a professional basis are all teaching me about Christian stress management in small but powerful ways.

I have found that when I become distracted by the cares and concerns of life, God has placed people in my life to point me back to Him. Then, as I renew my focus and my vision for how life can be when walking close to my Savior, the stress seems to melt away.

Why we need Christian Stress Management

We need the powerful principles of Christian Stress Management because of our own limited vision. We cannot see the end from the beginning, and we often cannot see our way through to a peaceful existence when we are in the middle of our stress-filled lives.

There are a lot of things we don't know. But that's okay!

God asks us to be like little children... which is counterintuitive (it does not make sense at first glance).

Aren't we supposed to grow up and become wise to the ways of the world? Aren't we supposed to be able to second-guess ourselves and create a fail-safe plan for our lives? It turns out... no. We are supposed to trust like little children.

We should not rely on our own strength to get through stressful times. I have tried that before, and I am a strong person. It does not work very well.

Stress, Fear and Love

When we really dig down and figure out what is causing our stress, we often find that stress is based in fear. We are afraid of the unknown. We are afraid of losing our income. We are afraid of losing our loved ones. We are afraid of losing our health.

This is understandable. On our own, we should be very afraid of these things, and many more.

The good news, of course, is that we are not on our own. We have access to the Source of love. And what do we know about love?

Love conquers fear. Truly, the love of our Savior has conquered all sorts of bad things. Like death. Almost like a bonus, love drives fear out of our lives.

When fear is gone, there is nothing that can stress us out!

Lesson from the Potter's Shop

All of this is very nice...

you say,

...but it does not change the fact that lots of hard things happen in life!

You are very right. We still live in a fallen world, and we will continue to live and die here until Christ returns to bring justice and set up His perfect Kingdom.

That is a good hope for the future...

you say,

...but how does it help me right now?

When things get hard and hope for the future seems a little thin, there is one thing that makes all the difference in my Christian stress management. This is the powerful fact that God uses the stressful things in our lives to shape us into the people He wants us to be.

Think for a moment about pottery-making. God Himself draws this parallel in scripture... we are like the clay, and God is like the potter.

God spins us around and shapes us into different types of vessels for different purposes.

Sometimes we know what our purpose is, and sometimes we are fulfilling a purpose that we cannot see with our mortal eyes.

At any rate, the shaping is never a comfortable process for the clay. If clay had nerves (which we do) it would cry out "what are you doing to me?" as it spins on the potter's wheel.

We can cry out to God and ask Him what He is doing to us. We can ask Him about the purpose that He has in mind. We should have the kind of relationship with Him where we can ask those hard questions.

In the end, though, it is enough to know that He is in control and has a plan for us... not to do any eternal harm to us, but to give us a future and a hope. That knowledge is the core of Christian stress management.

When we are living in the light of this truth, that is where Christian stress management really shines. No other 10-step plan or list of tips can compare to knowing that we are in the loving hands of an all-powerful God Who has our best eternal interest in mind.

A Great Christian Stress Management Resource

There is so much that can be said about Christian stress management... and I am so passionate about seeing my brothers and sisters lead lives of peace, joy and fulfillment...

That I have gather up a whole bunch of stories, scriptures, truths and techniques together in a Christian stress management book.

I call it: God in our Stress

Check it out... I know that God can use these principles powerfully in your life. He already has in mine! Just writing this book was an amazing exercise in learning to live, love and trust His plan.

Many blessings,

-James Klotzle

founder, coach and author