The Stress Spiral
By Greg Sanders
2 Chronicles 28:21 For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of the LORD, and out of the house of the king, and of the princes, and gave it unto the king of Assyria: but he helped him not. 22 And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD: this is that king Ahaz.

According to a 2018 Gallup study, The United States is the third highest place on the planet in people feeling stressed. The world wide average is around 33% and we come in around 55%. So for all of our liberties, great health care and high level of living, stress still finds its way into our lives. One uncontested fact about stress is this: Stress lessons our ability to make good decisions.

We can see in King Ahaz’s life that the more stress he encountered, the worse his decisions spiraled. One bad decision led him to another bad decision. Does this sound as familiar to you as it does to me? Ultimately, the Bible says that “in time of distress” he trespasses more and more against the Lord. Distress often leads to distrust if left unchecked.

When you find yourself going down the stress spiral, making bad decision after bad decision, realize you are following the path of Ahaz. He did everything in his power to relieve himself from the issues in His life but he never consulted the Lord. Do not allow your distress to cause you distrust God? He is able, He is for you and He cares about your needs.