It sounds crazy, doesn’t it?
I mean, I don’t choose to be in a stressful situation or have stress in
my life. It just happens. Sometimes I go through very stressful periods
of time and I’m just fine. But
eventually, the consequences of stress do appear. Recently, I experienced a few days of very
rapid heart beat. What’s going on? I
thought. I could feel my heart in my
chest pretty much all day long. I felt
it at night, too. No caffeine, no
chocolate… could it be salt intake? I
scrutinized my diet to see if that was the problem. My blood pressure was fine… even my pulse was
fine. So why was my heart beating so
hard??
I called the Dr.’s office.
The nurse asked me a lot of questions to try to determine if I needed to
go to the Emergency Room. She concluded
that I did not, but she made an appointment for me to see the Dr. in two
days. If anything worsened, she said, I
should go straight to the ER.
Early the next morning, I got on my knees and prayed. Lord, I
don’t seem to have enough strength. I
feel weak. I pray for your
strength. I want to know what it means
to have you strengthen me. I need your
power in my life! Oh, I pray that I can
fully understand what that means. Please
give me wisdom to understand….
I continued praying about things that were on my mind,
turning each one over to God. When I was
done, I turned to my devotional book and read, “When you approach me in stillness
and in trust, you are strengthened.”
Then I turned on the radio to listen to a Christian broadcast and the
pastor said, “It does our heart so good to spend time with the Lord!” I smiled… I knew these messages were meant for
me and my heart!
I felt so wonderful all day.
My heart beat went back to normal.
I felt strengthened all day! Thank you, Lord!! I canceled my Dr. appointment and I have
not felt the out-of-control rapid heart beat since that day.
Is it really possible
to choose not be stressed? I’ve been
thinking a lot about that lately, and I decided that the answer is Yes! I could have easily followed the path of high
anxiety (frustration, fatigue, irritation, stress, and physical pain). Instead, I chose to turn it over to the Lord and to pray for his strength and
power in my life. It is possible to
turn over our stress to the Lord.
I believe that the following “Stress Reducing” goals can help as we make
the choice to eliminate stress from our lives:
1. Get on your knees. Pray for God’s strength and tell him your
concerns and your fears. Turn over your troubles
to him. Pray and spend time with God every
day. (Be engaged in your faith!)
2. Be grateful. Enumerate your blessings to God, and thank
him for your life, health, job, house, family, puppy, etc. (See my blogposts, “Gratitude… A Great Goal”
and “Choose Gratitude.”)
3. Eat healthy. Stop sugar, reduce salt, and reduce caloric
intake (if necessary). Instead of
increasing your food intake to reduce anxiety with comfort food, try eating healthy
things and see if that helps your stress.
Drink water (instead of sugared soda and caffeine)!
4. Change your reactions. Be conscious of your reactions to things and
try to consciously change them.
Eventually the new habit will stick.
Believe it or not, our reactions are a choice. Anticipate, prepare, and make the decision beforehand to remain calm in certain
situations.
5. Give yourself enough time. This is probably my number one stressor… not
having enough time. Running late and
rushing to get somewhere or meet someone is a huge stressor! Slow down.
Be prepared. Take small steps! Give yourself enough time for a delay or change
in plans.
If you anticipate and prepare for stressful
situations and practice some of the suggestions above, the results can be
peace, joy, happiness, enjoyment of your day, and appreciation and love for God
who helps you! Those results are so much more desirable than stress,
anxiety, rapid heartbeat, irritation, anger, frustration, and a trip to the
ER!!!
Just a reminder, we are now half-way through 2017. It’s time to re-visit your list of goals for
the year. How are you doing?
I’m keeping up with my goal of memorizing Bible verses. Below are some encouraging verses, written
here from memory:
Romans 5:6-8 (NIV):
6- You see, at just the right time,
when we were still powerless,
Christ died for the ungodly.
7- Very rarely will anyone die for a
righteous man, though for a good man,
someone might dare to die.
8- But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
(Emphasis added.)
Devotion
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7
Prayer:
Lord, we pray for strength to get beyond our anxieties and to trust
you. Anxiety and fear are the absence of
trust in you. We choose to trust you,
and we thank you for the peace and joy which replace our anxiety and fear. Thank you for setting us free! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
© 2017 Linda Lijewski
