In this supercharged pandemic filled, economically failing, politically faltering and socially unsettled world of today, it is a real wonder how anyone can avoid experiencing some level of stress. But what about the Christians?  Are we just as vulnerable to feeling as stressful as our unbelieving brothers and sisters?

 

I have heard the statement “I’m to Blessed to be Stressed.” I’m not sure being blessed makes anyone immune, resistant or exempt from experiencing stress.  The year 2020, has served to remind all of us that we are living in a fallen world. A world that has subjected all of its inhabitants to unfathomable afflictions and have caused everyone of us to taste the bitter gall of its tragic concoction of pain, misery, anguish, gloom, discomfort and disappointments. For many, it has become almost unbearable.

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Often, when a believer is transparent enough to admit that they are struggling emotionally in various areas of their life, they are often told by other well-meaning saints to just “trust God more!” This would imply that the Christian who is struggling emotionally is really suffering from weak or feeble faith in God. Such remarks can often leave the sufferer to question the sincerity of their faith, or question whether they are somehow ineligible to receive God’s love and support. This type of thinking often leaves the sufferer to suffer alone, without relief, in unmitigated silence and despair. The reality is all of us could use a little more Jesus. In fact, we can all understand the mindset expressed in the old “Dr. Watts” hymn – “Father, I stretch my hand to thee, no other help I know…”

 

Another Perspective

 

Ps 103:14

For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. KJV

 

The Psalmist declares that God is intimately aware of just how each of us has been constructed. God is our maker and He alone knows just how you and I have been made. As God deals with us, He is always aware of our fragile natures, and He continually considers our strengths and weaknesses.  In the process of our struggles God makes his all-sufficient grace readily available to us. It is ultimately up to us to make full use of this gift of God’s grace. In like fashion, we must strive to open our hearts to this gift of grace; embracing and receiving the full love of God that has been made available through our relationship with his Son Jesus Christ.  

 

 

 

 

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This life is an ever-moving flow of uncertainties that can only offer the unbeliever an existence filled with greater and greater amounts of worry and anxiety.  In this situation the Christian can find great comfort in the words of Jesus in John 16:33 “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”  KJV.  By coming down from heaven and later sending the Holy Spirit our comforter, Jesus brought all of the divine aid, strength and support we need to be sustained in this life. And by his death and resurrection we vicariously gained the victory over all that would attempt to ruin, decimate or destroy us.  As the song says “Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, we have the Victory!”

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  Bishop Rex M Waddell

  Chief Presiding Prelate 

  Church of the Living God C.W.F.F.