Did you know that walking in love is good for your health? That’s right! I saw a documentary that focused on stress. It explained that researchers had discovered there are two kinds of stress.

The first is the kind you experience when you’re working hard to achieve something, pressing yourself to reach a goal. That kind of stress, they said, is natural and good. It doesn’t hurt you. The second kind of stress, however, has such a negative effect that it’s physically dangerous.

Do you know what they said causes that kind of stress? Hostility. Or, we could say, failing to walk in love.

Now when you think of hostility, you may think of the type of anger you feel when something serious happens, but according to this program, that kind of thing isn’t what really causes the problem with most people. It’s the little things. When the dry cleaners ruins your favorite outfit, for example. Or when the cafeteria lady puts gravy on your mashed potatoes, especially after you’ve asked her not to.

In short, what researchers have discovered is what God has been telling us all along. We need to live in love.

Isn’t that something? God is so smart. And the longer I walk with Him, the more He proves that everything He instructs us to do is for our good.

Just think of all the stress we could avoid if we were quick to forgive. If we truly took no account of a suffered wrong. We’d be so healthy—both physically and spiritually! You see, our bodies weren’t made to live with hostility flowing through them. They were designed to live according to love.

So why don’t we all constantly walk in love? Very often, it’s because we’re still wrapped up in old, worldly habits of thinking and reacting. We continue to live from the outside instead of from the inside where God (Who is love) dwells.

So shake off that stress. Learn to walk in love. Renew your mind according to the Word and what it says about love. Choose to walk in forgiveness. Pretty soon you’ll be feeling like the new person you really are…a new person living in love!

Speak the Word

I take no account of evil done to me. I pay no attention to a suffered wrong. (1 Corinthians 13:5, amp)