3 Steps You Can Take to Cope with Stress Part 1

3 steps you can take to cope with stress? Maybe you may feel overwhelmed and exhausted from stress. Maybe what you’ve tried hasn’t worked. Here are three steps you can take to cope with stress.

The first step you can take to cope with stress is to find a quiet spot.

With ingenuity, you can find a quiet spot somewhere in your home. My friend Debbie said, “I have a quiet spot now. It’s in my bedroom closet. Not only are the walls insulated but I also have an extra layer of insulation — my clothes.”

We laughed about her quiet spot. However, with her noise-distracting headset and her insulated closet, Debbie could say as the psalmist did in Psalm 131:2a, “I have calmed and quieted myself” (NIV).

Ask God to help you find a quiet spot and watch him answer you.   

The second step you can take to cope with stress is to get on your knees and talk to the Lord.

He already knows how you feel, but get on your knees and talk to the Lord anyway. Charles Stanley often says, “Fight your battles on your knees and you win every time.”

The past two months I’ve gotten on my knees and talked to God about the website glitches, the scammer who grabbed grip of my website, and the hacker who charged a $17.99 warrior game on my credit card.

Let’s look at a New Testament example of a woman who followed the second step. In Matthew 15:22, we read, “A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly’” (NIV).

Although not an Israelite, the woman gave the Lord reasons why he should answer her prayer. Verse 25 says, “The woman came and knelt before him. ‘Lord, help me!’”

Like the Canaanite woman, I got on my knees and said “Lord, help me! My technology is not demon-possessed, but the devil has worked through scammers and hackers. Without you, my stress will skyrocket.”

I thank God I knelt and talked to the Lord. He heard me and showed me how to resolve the glitches, updates, and techie nightmare.

Yes, I know new ones can arise, but I can get on my knees and talk to the Lord again. He doesn’t limit the number of requests you and I take to him.

What day this week will you take the second step to cope with stress, get on your knees and talk to the Lord?

The third step you can take to cope with stress is to meditate on Scripture.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary online defines the word, meditate, as “to focus one’s thoughts on, to reflect or ponder over.”

Look at what the psalmist says about why he meditates. In Psalm 119:97, he says, “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.”

How much do you love Scripture? With what frequency do you meditate on, focus on, reflect, or ponder Scripture?

I haven’t conquered this step, but I’ve improved each year in my love of God’s law and how often I meditate on it. That has helped me cope with stress.

To wrap up, the three steps you can take to cope with stress are:

*Find a quiet spot.

*Get on your knees and talk to the Lord.

*Meditate on Scripture.

Prayer: God, I need your strength and perseverance. Stress can frustrate me and wear me out. Please help me take the three steps to cope with stress. Amen.

Application:Select one of the three steps you will take this week. Comment about it on my blog.

Copyright © by Yvonne Ortega February 5, 2019