De-clutter to De-stress

God wants us live without fear, worry or stress. His desire is for peace to rule and reign in our hearts. Often, reducing the stress is as easy as simplifying our lives. Many of us tend to live lives of excess and that adds additional stress. The more stuff we have around us, the more stuff we have to take care of and the more stuff we have to keep clean and tidy.

But be sure that everything is done properly and in order. I Corinthians 14:40 (New Living Translation, NLT)

For quite a while, my home office has been what you might call a dumping ground. While I’ve known where everything was when I needed it, the overall appearance has been nothing short of a cluttered mess. Sitting down to type a blog post in the midst of piles of papers, stack of books, and other various odds and ends, does not create an atmosphere of peace. And serious study of the Word in that room has been impossible. All the “stuff’ creates feelings of stress. Simply going through everything to discard what is no longer needed and organizing the remaning items is a huge reducer of stress. What a difference a little order brings to your life!

We need to de-clutter our lives of physical clutter, but we also need to address mental, emotional and spiritual clutter as well. How many hurts and offenses are we allowing to clutter our minds and hearts? How many disappointments and broken dreams are we dragging around? And how much unforgiveness are we going to hold onto? If we really wanted to, we could let go of these things and release them to the Lord. God can take the clutter and give us peace and joy in its place. Go to the Lord today and decide to de-clutter so you can de-stress.

Casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully]. I Peter 5:7 (Amplified Bible, AMP)