Had it?

''I've had it!'' we often hear people say. Perhaps they're feeling frustrated with ''the system.'' Or they may be responding to the pressure of incessant deadlines or to the patter of too many little feet around the house on a hot day.

What can we do or where can we turn if we feel this way? It's reassuring to know that right where we are, right now, God is.

St. Paul, a person who was not unacquainted with frustration in dealing with ''the system,'' and who was beaten, imprisoned, and shipwrecked at different times as he went about spreading the gospel, never said, ''I've had it!'' In fact, he was able to write, ''I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'' n1 Paul found reassurance and deliverance by turning to the Father, God, for aid, just as Jesus had.

n1 Romans 8:38, 39.

It would appear Paul was telling us that no matter how bad things seem, God is right here. God's love is always present to support, strengthen, and direct us. As we realize and accept this fact, affirming it to be true for us, we'll find joy and harmony becoming more a part of our daily activities. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, puts it this way in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: ''Through divine Science, Spirit, God, unites understanding to eternal harmony. The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace.'' n2

n2 Science and Health, p. 506.

So when the frustration level rises, we should take it as a red flag, warning that now is the time to increase our ''spiritual apprehension,'' our awareness of who is really in charge, who is the only power, the only governor.

When Christ Jesus needed spiritual refreshment, he sometimes went up into a mountain to pray. It's not practical to head for the mountains in the midst of a business conference or the family laundry, but it is certainly possible and necessary to lift our thinking above the ''busyness'' of our day; to acknowledge God's allness and goodness and His loving care for each one of us. The ways of doing this are as varied as the situations and the people involved in them. Even the pure desire to feel God's presence can lift our thought above the tedious.

We need to release a false, burdened sense of responsibility through an acknowledgment of God's all-power and of our inseparable relationship to Him as His spiritual offspring. Man is not, in truth, a struggling mortal on his own apart from God. Rather, he is the very manifestation, the reflection, of all that God is. This is our actual nature, and we can progressively discern and express it.

Instead of giving up, we can look up and see the salvation of our God. A friend once said: ''If God doesn't seem so close, who do you suppose has moved?'' God is always at hand to aid and sustain us. Our job is to acknowledge this fact and receive His constant, tender guidance and care.

As we do this we will be living proof of the Psalmist's assurance, ''Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.'' n3 A feeling of ''I've had it'' will then give way to an awareness that the only feelings we can really have come from a loving, caring God. In turn our daily tasks will become more orderly and fulfilling. DAILY BIBLE VERSE The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; the God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation. II Samuel 22:2, 3