Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren says one's battle with stress starts in the mind, and what one person fills his or her thoughts with will determine the level of stress in that person's life.
"If you want peace of mind, you're going to have to start controlling what you allow in it. Whatever you put in your mind is going to come out in your life," he writes on his website.
The Bible tells Christians to be careful about things they think about, and urges them only to "think about the things that are good and worthy of praise. Think about the things that are true and honorable and right and pure and beautiful and respected (Philippians 4:8 NCV)."
Warren says the only way people can lower their stress levels is to change what they think about, and control the things that they allow into their heads.
The Bible has eight questions that people must ask themselves to determine whether or not something is acceptable in their minds: "Is it good? Is it worthy of praise? Is it true? Is it honorable? Is it right? Is it pure? Is it beautiful? Is it respected?"
He criticised the state of television nowadays, since heroes on the small screen are either zombies, vampires, serial killers, crack addicts, corrupt politicians, and even perverts. For Warren, there are enough bad things happening in the world for him to even consider "inviting it into my home."
"When you think about things that are good, worthy of praise, true, honorable, right, pure, beautiful, and respected, you're really picturing God. Paul is saying in Philippians 4:8 to think about God," he says. "What you think about determines how stressed and worried you are. If you fix your thoughts on God, he will keep you in perfect peace."
