Jeremiah 5:25 Your wrongdoings have kept these away;
your sins have deprived you of good.

Once again we are back to the principle of acts and consequences, also called the law of sowing and reaping. (Galatians 6:7-8) We have an amazing capacity for denying this is true, but that’s like trying to deny the law of gravity! God is a God of grace and mercy, yes, but walking off a 60 meter cliff is almost certainly going to get you killed, and pretending otherwise doesn’t change anything. God’s laws as expressed in the Bible aren’t to bind us and keep us from having any fun, (which is how the devil paints them) they are to let us know how to live for maximum enjoyment, satisfaction, safety, and every­thing else that’s good. After all, parents try to keep their little children from running out into busy streets. That’s not “restricting their freedom of choice,” it’s saving their lives! God is the perfect parent, and He wants to pour good things out on us His children, but as this verse says, our sins get in the way. Trusting God and walking in obedience is the path to blessings, without exception. Part of the problem is that we want to define what is a blessing and what is not, and like little children, we don’t have the best perspective on that. That’s where trust comes in. Life on this planet is colored not only by our own sin but also by the sins of others. Also, everything on this planet is temporal, that is, within the limits of time. God’s plans for us are eternal! As the hymn says, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus.”

This is of course a lesson I’m still learning myself, even as I try to help others understand it. Stress comes from tension, by definition, whether we’re talking mechanics or psychology. Psychological stress comes from the tension between my desires and expectations and reality as I perceive it. Sometimes my desires and expectations are wrong, and often my perceptions are wrong. Stresses are also cumulative, as in the proverb about the straw that broke the camel’s back. Lately I have been very aware of how narrow my emotional margins have become, and that’s not at all good. It’s further evidence of how much room I have to grow in trusting obedience. While teaching others, I must not fail to follow through myself! As this verse points out, the way to the peace, joy, and everything else I desire is obedience to God, because He desires to pour those things out on me even more than I want them.

Father, thank You for this reminder. As much as I’ve read Your Word, none of Your life principles are news to me, but I certainly have room to grow in living them out! Thank You for Your patience with me. Help me have patience with myself, because such impatience is a further source of stress. Help me likewise have patience with those around me, because they are as much in need of Your grace and mercy as I am. Help me indeed rest, relax, and rejoice in You, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!