Thought For Today: “Biblical Take on Stress”

Stress and its cousins, anxiety and worry, can do great damage.

“An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.” (Proverbs 12:25)

Stress and anxiety weigh heavily upon the heart and can cause all kinds of heart related illnesses. Hypertension, headaches, aches and pains, and difficulty in sleeping are attributed to anxiety, along with such behaviors as compulsiveness, apprehension, fear, nervousness, panic attacks, and tension.

Therefore, the Bible tells us not to be anxious in the first place (Philippians 4:6)

Anxiety, worry, and stress also move us away from trusting God to where we begin to trust in ourselves and our own wisdom. In Proverbs 2:7 the Bible says, “Do not be wise in your own eyes.”

Stress, along with its cousins, is literally the sin of not trusting God in whatever we’re facing in life. They also cause us the focus on the wrong thing.

“Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not! And if worry can’t do little things like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things?” (Luke 12:25-26)

Stress, anxiety, and worry give us the wrong perspective, telling us that God isn’t big enough to handle our problems and difficulties.

So, our need is to stop trusting in ourselves and start trusting in God, and our level of anxiety and stress will begin to diminish.