Faith On The Line - Stress, Stress Go Away Vol 18 | Page 24

Someone might say, “Well, Jesus was
God’s Son, what do you expect?” The Scriptures assure us that everyone who receives
Christ Jesus as Saviour and Lord is God’s son
or daughter (John 1:12). As Jesus was in this
world, so we can be by God’s empowering
grace through faith (2 Corinthians 4:7-10; 1
John 2:6; 4:17).
Notice this eyeopening comment
about this situation
found in the Desire of
Ages:
When Jesus was
awakened to meet the
storm, He was in perfect
peace. There was no trace
of fear in word or look,
for no fear was in His
heart. But He rested not
in the possession of almighty power. It was
not as the ‘Master of earth and sea and sky’
that He reposed in quiet. That power He
had laid down, and He says, ‘I can of Mine
own self do nothing.’ John 5:30.
He trusted in the Father’s might. It was
in faith—faith in God’s love and care—that
Jesus rested, and the power of that word
which stilled the storm was the power of God.
As Jesus rested by faith in the Father’s care, so
we are to rest in the care of our Saviour (336,
emphases added).

Is it a sin to be stressed?
That’s a great question, one that calls
for a truly honest answer within every
person’s heart. Perhaps another way of
framing the question would be this: When
does my response to a stressor
become sinful?
According to 1 John 3:4, sin is
the transgression of the law, or
the disobeying of the law. Even
when we are ignorant of the fact,
anything that we are thinking or
doing outside our loving Creator’s
original design for us will create a
certain amount of distress. We are not guilty
of sin for that. Jesus tells us in John 9:41,
“If ye were blind, ye should have no sin:
but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin
remaineth.” See also John 15:22.

When does my
response to a
stressor become
sinful?

Spiritual Gifts puts it this way: “If light comes, and that light
is set aside, or rejected, then comes condemnation and the
frown of God; but before the light comes there is no sin, for
there is no light for them to reject” (Volume 4, 3-4).
However, when I knowingly choose to step outside of
God’s revealed will and determinedly cling to my own way of
responding to a stressor, I have sinned against my loving God
and Saviour. James 4:17 says, “Therefore to him that knoweth
to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
For instance, when the weather turns icy cold, it naturally
produces some physical
distress on our body.
This distress is not a sin.
But if I’m well aware of
the fact that my body is
the temple of the Holy
Spirit and the cold will
be harmful to it, and still
I choose to go to work
outside without putting
on the necessary clothing
to keep me warm, that
is sinful distress—knowingly mistreating the
temple of the Holy Spirit
(1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
Notice this statement from the inspired book Temperance:
Every law governing the human system is to be strictly
regarded; for it is as truly a law of God as is the word of Holy
Writ; and every willful deviation from obedience