Bible Reading: Proverbs 15:19
Sometimes the people and events that surround us can cause a lot of stress. People who talk too much or too fast, taking tests, job interviews, and many other things can
cause our hearts to pound and our pulses to race.
However, not all of our stress is caused by other people or tense
situations. Sometimes – often times – we bring our stress on
ourselves.
Probably the #1 thing that causes us to end up feeling stressed is our own laziness. Proverbs 15:19 says, “A lazy person has trouble all through life; the path of the upright is easy!” Some of the “trouble” laziness causes is stress. Rather than being relaxing, laziness leads to stress as we become pressured to finish whatever we put off.
Our laziness shows up in one of two ways:
We put off doing, or don’t do at all, the things that we know we should do, such as picking up clutter daily rather than letting it pile up or eating junk food when we know our bodies need foods filled with vitamins and minerals.
We do things without fully thinking through the consequences of our actions, like putting of writing a term paper until the last minute or staying up late the night before a big test.
God doesn’t want us to live stress-filled lives and He expects us to be self-disciplined enough to not bring unnecessary stress upon ourselves, so what is the Bible’s prescription for avoiding self-induced stress?
Think before you act then act promptly to do what you know to be right.
If you follow that prescription no one will end up telling you, “You brought it on yourself.”
“We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” Hebrew 6:12
Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to think first then act wisely. In Jesus’ name. Amen.