Stress, anxiety, and even trauma are common experiences. Weak responses to such grueling feelings and experiences can include: wanting to make it all go away, forcing someone or something to change, stuffing your feelings inside, or doing what you can to get through it and just feel better. In fact, all sorts of unrealistic or incomplete expectations can occur because stress, anxiety, and trauma cheat you of confidence and rob you of strength. But by focusing on having strength responses instead of merely surviving stress and anxiety, you can have a more productive outcome. In this article, you will find two simple tools (a stress scale and a strength scale) to help you determine stress and strength levels so you can overcome and grow.

Your Ratio of Stress to Strength

During high stress times, it’s hard to feel strong, steady, and confident. Conversely, when you aren’t so crippled by anxiety or trauma, strength seems more available to you. The more you think about this correlating relationship between stress and strength, the more progress you can make.

“If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.” (Proverbs 24:10)

The Stress/Anxiety Scale

When you’re feeling weak, consider how much stress or anxiety you’re feeling. On an anxiety scale of 0-10, think of 10 as a panic attack. And think of 0 as one of those heavenly moments of having no stress or anxiety.

Having a High Score on the Anxiety Scale

If you’re struggling with anxiety, you may be living at a 6 or higher on this stress and anxiety scale. But, if you can lower your stress and anxiety, you can raise your strength. It’s important to note that there are certain kinds of common coping with stress that don’t actually lower your stress or increase your strength. Some examples of such poor coping with stress include: being controlling in your relationships, avoiding what is hard, withdrawing from others, often blaming and being angry, ignoring your mood, doubting God, and escaping and numbing your feelings with media, entertainment, substances, unhealthy relating, and other ineffective solutions.

Biblical Example of Poor Coping with High Anxiety

Jesus was asleep on the boat during the storm, and the disciples doubted Him and asked Him if He even cared their lives were at risk. And He responded: Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”(Mark 4:35-41). In place of poor coping with stress (such as doubting God), you can ask the Spirit of Christ to lower your anxiety to raise your strength.

Improving (Lowering) Your Anxiety Score

Effective stress-reducing, strength-increasing tools include:

• Facing your emotions and lamenting (mourning your losses).
• Communicating how you’re stuck and then being willing to receive help.
• Replacing fear with fear (replace earthly fears such as fear of man, fear of failure, fear of pain, etc. with a higher and healthier fear and worship of God).
• Overriding negative, fear-based thoughts with Christ-centered, grateful thoughts.
• Waiting to make decisions when you are thinking logically and Biblically again.
• Memorizing Scripture so that you rehearse His Word more than your words.
• Cherishing and admiring loved ones no matter what they’re doing instead of judging and trying to control them.
• Concentrating on what God is doing in your life and not being consumed with what He is or isn’t doing in another’s life.
• Incorporating a weekly Sabbath into your life that includes true, restorative rest without demanding anyone else do it the same way.
• Using your spiritual and creative giftedness in order to: glorify God, care well for others, “get out of your head” and away from self-focused, anxious thoughts, and be more obedient
• Think eternally. God is giving you the day-to-day grace to play a small, but significant role in His grand Kingdom work.
• Expect the Word of God to change you (not anyone else or your circumstances) and lead you to repentance, freedom, and strength.

In the fear of the Lord, there is strong confidence. (Proverbs 14:26)

The Strength Scale

The strength scale moves in the opposite direction of the anxiety scale. You want a low score on the anxiety scale and a high score on the strength scale. On a strength scale of 0-10, the higher your stress and anxiety, the lower your strength. Before you can apply tools to lower anxiety and raise strength, you have to recognize and communicate when you are operating with low strength.

Having a Low Score on the Strength Scale

If you hover around a 3 or 4 on the strength scale, or think you’re starting to dip below a 3, you are feeling very weak. You may have even told someone that you felt like you were at a breaking point. At a time when you feel like you’re at the end of yourself and have lost almost all of your natural strength, you can think about this scale and how low you’ve fallen on it. Stress, anxiety, and trauma can cause you to reach extreme weakness, and being able to communicate to Jesus and your loved ones that you’ve reached this low point on a strength scale will lead to you being well cared for and nursed back to strength.

“Anxiety in the heart of a man causes depression.” (Proverbs 12:25)

Biblical Example of Low Strength

When Elijah was weak and collapsed under a tree in the wilderness, he cried out that he was at his breaking point. He had dipped below a 3 on the scale of strength. So, God sent help to him in various forms: through an angel, through His provision, through meeting Elijah’s human needs, through His word, through His commands, by His Spirit, and in His strength (1 Kings 19). The sooner you communicate to God and His people that you’re nearing a 3 on this scale, the sooner your resources can come in and rescue you.

Risks that Accompany Average Strength

Don’t get careless just because you’re not feeling as weak as Elijah. If you’re averaging a mid-range score on this strength scale, maybe your stress level seems manageable and you’re feeling tempted to do everything in your own strength. Of course, the danger in being in this place is you’re not as strong as you think you are, and you quickly crash and burn all over again. Like Paul, accept the reality of just how weak you are and how much you need Jesus Christ, and you’ll be stronger than you’ve ever been (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). If you insist on doing things in your own strength, you’ll bounce back and forth from low strength to average strength, never really realizing the higher strength you’re missing out on. If you surrender pride, fear, and desire to pleasing and trusting Christ and obeying His commands, the result will be more of His holiness, humility, confidence, and strength in you.

Improving (Raising) Your Score on the Strength Scale

After you’ve been practicing lowering your stress, pursuing strength, living in the midrange of the strength scale for a while, and relying on the strength of Jesus instead of your own, you’ll find yourself moving up to as high as a 9 or 10 on the scale. At this point, you can really enjoy the blessings of contentment and praise. Also at this time, the Lord may lead you to do something out of your comfort zone, try something new, or operate in a heightened level of boldness, etc. Some examples could include:

• Aiming to reduce the frequency of scoring low on the strength scale.
• Remaining self-disciplined so that you can spend more time scoring high on the strength scale.
• Committing to being able to tolerate more stress than you’ve previously been able to do.
• Making changes in your life that normally you feel too overwhelmed to make.
• Tracking how well you are meeting your goals.
• Making sacrificial decisions out of obedience to the Lord.
• Being honest with an accountability partner.
• Discipling others in what you have learned.
• Realizing your dreams, reaching your potential, and fulfilling your calling.

Biblical Example of High Strength

Because He lives, and since you were resurrected with Him, you can have boldness and confident access to His strength and power through faith. In fact, you can experience having an encouraged heart, enhanced knowledge of His love, increased fullness of God in more and more areas of your life, and a flow of His workings through you that exceed your imagination and prayers (Ephesians 3:14-20). Living in such resurrection power can help you stay motivated to continue in high levels of strength.

Conclusion: Putting the Stress & Strength Scales Together

The Goal of Using these Scales

The goal of thinking and communicating about these strength and stress scales is to be self-aware, to communicate, to let God in, to let others in, and to apply skills so that stress is reduced and strength is increased.

The Improvement to Your Life of Using these Scales

In the past, your behaviors may have shouted an alarm to others that you were weak and breaking, but by communicating these scales to Jesus and others, people around you can respond more helpfully and you can rebound more quickly. Letting someone know how weak you are is far less shameful than trying to hide it and then having a bad reaction. Using these stress/strength scales protects you from the consequences of being emotionally, relationally, and spiritually weak, and positions you to receive help from your brothers and sisters in Christ to build you up and bring you closer to Him. And, even if you lack community support in this season of your life, the self-awareness of thinking in terms of these scores will make your prayers more specific, and then your needs will be met in His presence and by His direction (Psalm 146:5, Philippians 4:19).

Using These Scales in Preparation for Anticipated Stressful Circumstances

Finally, you may be preparing for more stress or even additional trauma to come your way. Using the scales to monitor and lower your stress and raise your strength can help you function like an athlete putting on padding before a contact sport. Ultimately, you’ll be spiritually, emotionally, and relationally healthier if you continue to prioritize strength over stress.

Prayer & Blessing

I will love You O Lord, my Strength. (Psalm 18:1)