The link between disobedience and stress - All The Word for Today Daily Devotionals for 2026

‘Walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ Jeremiah 7:23 NKJV

A leading Christian psychologist says there is a direct correlation between the stress we experience and disobeying God’s Word. Could that be true? Could there be a link between the stress you are feeling and the level of your obedience to God? Yes. Think about it. As a redeemed child of God, when you knowingly disobey Him, your conscience bothers you and you feel conflicted and condemned. By knowingly violating His Word, you get uncomfortable in your own skin. Plus, when you need to pray and ask God for something, it can feel like you’re addressing a creditor with your unpaid bills. ‘Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence towards God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight’ (1 John 3:21-22 NKJV).

Sometimes we cannot pinpoint the exact source of the stress we’re feeling; it just feels like all is not well. What should you do? Stop and take inventory! The twelve-step programme of recovery refers to this as ‘a searching and fearless moral inventory’. It must be taken in order for a suffering alcoholic or addict to break free of what keeps driving them back to their habit. Would you like to de-stress? Read this Scripture prayerfully and carefully: ‘But this is what I commanded them, saying, “Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you”’ (Jeremiah 7:23 NKJV).

SoulFood: Est 4:13 – 5:3 Matt 6:16-18 Mark 2:18-22