³⁴ Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:34 CSB)

Today is a special day. I am celebrating having written in this blog 2000 devotions as of today! And today I bring you a devotion that is well suited to this monument. A topic that I have struggled with and I know many others do very frequently.

Stress is one of the enemy’s greatest tools. He loves to create situations to keep us continually knotted up with stress. He uses stress as a gateway drug (justification) to every form of sin we might commit. I think stress has created far more addicts than anything else, because stress gives way to the great American addiction of over working. When we are under a great deal of stress we need a release and far too often we find it in the worst possible ways.

Stress has many symptoms as well. It creates worry. It creates depression. It creates high blood pressure. It creates anger….and the list goes on an on.

So we are all pretty familiar with all of the above, so what can we do about it?

Well, first of all, we need to take our stress and worry to the source of all peace. Without starting here we cannot hope to overcome the giant of stress. Thus, prayer is our first, and arguably greatest, tool in our arsenal.

Second, we need to purge our lives of any sinful behavior that may be compounding our stress. If we are looking to some pleasure as a release for the pain of stress we must confess this and put it aside. Second tool is repenting of our sin.

Third, we need to define our stress. If we are not clear about the source we cannot combat it at its root. Gaining clarity can often open up pathways to seeing the truth about how stress creates fear in our lives which is often false evidence appearing real (F.E.A.R see what I did there). Third tool is clarity.

Forth, we need to get in motion and get out of our heads. The head is a trap for all kinds of stress. Regardless of what the outcome might be over what we are stressing over, we need to get active to combat stress. Forth tool is motion combats stress.

Fifth, we need to go back to our first tool, prayer. Without the Father none of the above is going to be helpful or useful. We need to cry out, “Abba, help me.” Our fifth and greatest tool is the Father. We are His children and He does not want us to be slaves to stress.

I pray for you all today and ask our Abba to release your stress.