2 Kings 11:20
“And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet: and they slew Athaliah with the sword beside the king’s house.”
The more complicated life becomes, the more stress you add to your life. Living a stress-free life is something that anyone desires. When life is stress-free, it makes your quality of life better and it is better for your health. It is truly possible to live a stress-free life.
In the verse above, you see that the people came to a point in their lives where they were stress-free. It says, “And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet…” The quietness in the land was a result of removing Athaliah, the heathen gods and committing themselves to the LORD. Life became much simpler when they decided to obey God and remove the things He did not want in their lives. You too can experience the stress-free life if you will apply the same actions that these people committed. Let me show you what they did.
First, they removed the sin from their lives. These people were not going to allow the sins of Athaliah and her cabinet to ruin their lives. Instead of allowing her to reign, they removed her from the throne. Sin adds stress because it complicates your life. Sin always adds stress to life because you are always having to look over your shoulder to be sure you didn’t get caught. If you want to live a stress-free life, then you are going to have to remove sin. Facing your sin may not be easy, but that is the only hope to removing stress from your life. As long as you have sin’s skeletons in your closet, you will continue to have to deal with stress. Once you come clean and confess your sin, you will be surprised how quickly the stress level in your life subsides.
Second, they removed the bad influences in their lives. They didn’t allow Athaliah to stay in their lives, but they removed her. There are bad influences in your life that you must remove if you want to have a stress-free life. Bad influences always add stress to life because they complicate your life and add drama to it. Remove every bad influence, especially friends who are bad, and you will find the stress level in your life will drop.
Third, they removed the temptations in their lives. They didn’t just remove Baal, but they destroyed everything that had to do with him. Removing sin in your life is not enough. You must also remove the temptations of those sins. Fighting temptation is not easy and adds undo stress to life. Whatever temptations you struggle with, remove them so you can remove the stress in your life.
Fourth, they committed themselves to the LORD. You need to ultimately decide you are going to serve the LORD. Stop straddling the fence because fence straddling always adds stress. You were made to serve the LORD, and you will never experience a stress-free life until you decide He is the only One to Whom you will commit your life.
Do you find your life filled with stress? Apply these four things to your life and watch the stress level dramatically drop. When the drama that sin causes is removed from your life, and the LORD is the only One Whom you choose to serve, then the stress of life is removed because your life will be stabilized by God. Don’t let stress remove the joy from your life, but apply these four areas to your life so that you can enjoy life to its fullest.
Allen Domelle is the editor of the Old Paths Journal which is more than just a Christian’s publication. It is an excellent place to learn how today’s headlines will forge tomorrow’s laws and statutes. Keep yourself in tune with what is happening around the world, as well as in your own backyard with our daily updates and devotionals.